A well executed wheels up landing methinks
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=fbd_1298150875
Posted here as I think it is a commercial aircraft.
Looks like a Cessna 402, used by many small airlines for commuter and feeder routes.
By: Bograt - 22nd February 2011 at 10:27
A Navajo that I used to look after had a nose gear problem, and the pilot elected to land with the gear fully retracted on the hard runway. We were puzzled until he explained to us the same reasons; risk of flipping over, less damage in the long run, etc. We had to re-skin the belly and have new prop blades, but the aircraft was back in service within a few months.
By: Deano - 22nd February 2011 at 09:30
Which looking at the video the pilot did exactly the right thing and shut down the engines at the last second.
By: Deano - 22nd February 2011 at 09:27
You are always better landing on a hard surface like concrete when doing a belly landing for the simple reason that if you were to do it on grass there is a very, very good chance of the aircraft digging in and flipping, or something that will cause a catastrophic failure.
As for shutting down the engine/s this would be common practice too, it will prevent shock loading to the engine when the blades hit the surface. Of course if your aeroplane relies on hydraulics for it’s control surfaces then shutting down the engines is not prudent.
By: Distiller - 22nd February 2011 at 09:10
Two questions:
— Isn’t it practice any more to land on a soft-ish surface when doing wheels-up? Like grass, dirt?
— And the props thing: No more stopping the engines before a wheels-up landing, to just glide in and not hurt the engines and the stuff connected to them?
Any official procedures? (I have zero experience with that class of aircraft, as privately I’m only glider flying and are ‘professionally’ involved in the military stuff, so sorry in case these questions are stupid).
By: hunterxf382 - 21st February 2011 at 19:36
By: Arabella-Cox - 21st February 2011 at 18:59
They used to cover runways with foam when a wheels up landing was confirmed in advance but now it seems that they don’t do it anymore.
By: Pillan56 - 21st February 2011 at 18:36
Cessna 404
Just found the same video on YouTube, it has this information:
This video was shot on Dec 14th after a hydraulic line failure in our 404 Titan forced us to make an emergency landing with the gear up. The emergency blow down bottle had a valve malfunction as well so there was no option available from that point on other than to find a place to sit it down. At the end of the slide down the runway there was a small fire on-board which I extinguished before exiting the aircraft with my crew member closely on my six . I’d like to send my thanks out to my crew member, the engineers in Wichita and to the ground crew mechanics at Mountain Home Airport in Arkansas for their assistance in relaying the communications with the engineers at Cessna, and for their mechanical knowledge that they shared with us during this unusual situation we found ourselves in.
Regards.
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February 21, 2011 at 5:44 pm