fholbert
Mod's - Please don't edit my posts!
Twice baked!
Video of the Day
- Thread starter fholbert
- Start date
Boots2Wings
Just happy to be here.
We actually had a guy recently who thought he had an engine fire (turned out to be a bad comp stall)…he secured it and told them, approach asked if he was declaring an emergency….”Uhhhh Not at this moment”….took about a microsecond for someone to come up on company and go “Declare the emergency!”
Needless to say the trucks were already rolling.
We all laughed on the ground and gave him a healthy ribbing. Brain farts are a thing I guess.
mrivc211
Well-Known Member
He lost electrical power. Not a big deal. Where he effd up was lowering the gear handle, not knowing the gear won’t come down with no electrical, and assuming it would be down. He also thought the emergency gear extension handle operated electrically. He did get lucky the nose gear plopped down to avoid a prop strike. This guy has zero systems knowledge and shouldn’t have been flying that plane. Their gonna give him a 709 at the minimum.
fholbert
Mod's - Please don't edit my posts!
A 709 at the max I'd say.
The Arrow has the simplest gear system, the only thing easer is fixed gear. The landing gear does not lock up, it's held up by hydraulic pressure. The emergency system is simply a small dump valve lever, release the pressure and the gear falls into place. Even Batman would know that.
I've seen that Arrow several times at Chino, assume the pilot would be somewhat proficient.
mightynimbus
Well-Known Member
Richman
JC’s Resident Curmudgeon
Been a long time since I was in a Piper, but I believe that picture isn't of the emergency gear extension, but of the auto-extend override. The actual emergency extension is a red, guarded knob under the right side pilot's sub-panel. Flip the catch up, pull the knob and it dumps the pressure. Gear falls down.
The auto extend had a pretty complicated history, including lawsuits, mandates to deactivate the system, reversing the mandate and so on. The short version is there is a pitot tube right behind the pilot side window. When it senses a drop in airspeed, it dumps the pressure and you get gear. Works great, unless you're practicing slow flight, clean stalls, ditching or doing an emergency landing (real or practice) where you don't want the gear.
The first iteration of the override, the lever was spring loaded, so when you were practicing stuff where you didn't want the gear, the CFI would hold the latch. Well, that didn't work so well because there are cases where you don't want the gear dropping without an instructor present. Hence the locking pin.
fholbert
Mod's - Please don't edit my posts!
Ford was president last time I flew an Arrow but I did most of my Commercial and Instrument in an Arrow II/III. As I remember it, up was override the auto extend feature, down was the emergency extend. Maybe something changed when you youngsters learned to fly.