REFLECTOR: N992PC Gear up landing

[Ronnie Brown]

THANKS Paul!!!!

Ronnie

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Paul Calhoun" <paul at med-amb.org>
To: "'Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list'" <reflector at tvbf.org>
Sent: Thursday, September 16, 2004 6:43 PM
Subject: REFLECTOR: N992PC Gear up landing


|
| Yesterday afternoon I let down the Velocity community by not letting
| down my landing gear. I owe each of you on the Reflector so much through
| the great technical and moral support you have given so it grieves me to
| detract from our credibility with another "incident".
|
| I was doing touch and goes in my new Velocity and was hugely surprised
| on the second one to find myself sinking lower and lower on the runway.
| Only after the contact with the tarmac did it dawn on me that the gear
| lever was still in the up position. I was amazed at how "soft" the
| landing was and how little damage it did to the underside. The MT prop
| is considerably shorter and there is a 3 x 4 foot scrape underneath but
| the nose gear doors are unscathed. 28R has a new white stripe down the
| middle.
|
| We lifted it up and the gear nicely lowered and locked so that it was an
| easy matter to tug the plane back to its hanger. No oil or gas leaks.
|
| So how did it happen? I installed an AV - 17 warning system which orally
| communicates a number of warnings including gear up danger. The system
| was giving a steady stream of false warnings from the first time we flew
| so I pulled the CB on the system with the note to track down the problem
| at some latter time. In short, there was no functioning stall warning
| system in place.
| Abeam the end of the runway I got distracted by my low  altitude and did
| not go through the GUMP exercise. Nor did I double check for two greens
| on final. All totally pilot error due to lack of adhering to routine
| flight systems and the arrogance of believing I could do without a stall
| warning system precisely at the time I needed it most due to getting
| used to a new plane and having low recent hours. I have flown retracts
| for 15 years without incidents I told myself.
|
| The emotional pain of the loss is considerable. The humiliation is
| tough. After 5 years of steady labor, payoff was within reach. Now some
| further delay. Again I deeply apologize to you the community.
|
| I suppose a Catto prop might be in order while I wait for the MT repair.
| Also need to get up to speed on what steps need to be taken with
| suddenly stopped engines from wooden prop strikes. The FAA manual on
| maintenance mandate very extensive (Draconian?) steps.
|
| Paul Calhoun
| N992PC IO540 XLRG, 10 hours on the engine.
|
|
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