Bonanza landing gear problems at KADS today

I'll ask around BeechTalk. I hope it was none of the guys there, but either way...ouch.
 
My towbar method has worked well for me in the past, so I thought I would pass it along. Once attached to the plane, whether by the lock, or just by the links in the nose gear clips, the tow bar is NEVER released from my hand. It's a mental set of handcuffs that I apply to the towbar and my hand. I may leave the towbar on a ramp somewhere someday by setting it down, but it'll never stay on the plane when it's moving.

Hope I never forget my mental checklist to keep my hand on it while attached to the plane.
 
In the small world category, I'm skiing in France and a friend that came has a hangar at Addison. Anyway, I know the pilot well, just didn't realize who it was. Scott had pre flighted the plane in a hangar as it was very cold and windy. Afterward they had the FBO pull it out with a tug, then went right out to start the plane and warm it. The tug operator disconnected the bar from the tug, but not the plane. It was the kind that screws onto the tow pins.

Best,

Dave
 
Does anyone know what actually broke. At first I was assuming the gear box went but the mains probably wouldn't have come down. Could it have been the lone bolt that retracts and extends the nose gear. If the nose gear was jammed in the gear well and partially down I would think the Airspeed would have been off.

Glad everyone retained their cool and the outcome was as good as could be expected.
 
Hello everyone! (waves hand) Stephanie here. I was at work today and the pilot of a Bonanza (ha!) told me that the towbar incident was all over the internet so I had to come see for myself. Very interesting comments here. You silly pilots you. I guess it never occurred to you that a Controller would ever read the forums. But hey, I'm the first to admit that my voice is squeaky, sing-song, over the top and so sweet it will give you diabetes. But I can't help it...... I LOVE my job so much it just comes out that way. As one poster put it, it's my "radio voice" (I've always said that KADS is one of the Top 40 Radio Stations in Dallas.) You should hear me go when I've had my second/third cup of coffee in the morning (afternoon, evening, whatever)----it's a very scary thing!

But back to the Bonanza. I'm not allowed to say too much about it in a public venue (being a Fed and all) but "the most amazing thing I ever saw" was the absolute perfect landing the pilot made....... until about 2 seconds after I unkeyed the mic and the nose plowed into the runway (you can hear the pilot's reaction to THAT at the end of the recording.) And the reason we were closed for a little over two hours is because FSDO is the final authority on when an aircraft can be moved after an incident/accident. Sometimes they need to do a quick preliminary investigation before anyone is allowed to touch the aircraft. Two hours is actually pretty quick for a gear up situation. Normally it's 3-4 hours, but since the Bonanza still had usable mains they were able to get it off the runway faster.

So, nice meeting everyone! (and don't worry about your comments, we Controllers say MUCH worse things to each other constantly.) Oh, one more thing, for those asking about a picture of me....... welllllll, let's just say I have a great personality and leave it at that ;).
 
AddisonTowerGoddess said:
Hello everyone! (waves hand) Stephanie here. I was at work today and the pilot of a Bonanza (ha!) told me that the towbar incident was all over the internet so I had to come see for myself. Very interesting comments here. You silly pilots you. I guess it never occurred to you that a Controller would ever read the forums. But hey, I'm the first to admit that my voice is squeaky, sing-song, over the top and so sweet it will give you diabetes. But I can't help it...... I LOVE my job so much it just comes out that way. As one poster put it, it's my "radio voice" (I've always said that KADS is one of the Top 40 Radio Stations in Dallas.) You should hear me go when I've had my second/third cup of coffee in the morning (afternoon, evening, whatever)----it's a very scary thing!

But back to the Bonanza. I'm not allowed to say too much about it in a public venue (being a Fed and all) but "the most amazing thing I ever saw" was the absolute perfect landing the pilot made....... until about 2 seconds after I unkeyed the mic and the nose plowed into the runway (you can hear the pilot's reaction to THAT at the end of the recording.) And the reason we were closed for a little over two hours is because FSDO is the final authority on when an aircraft can be moved after an incident/accident. Sometimes they need to do a quick preliminary investigation before anyone is allowed to touch the aircraft. Two hours is actually pretty quick for a gear up situation. Normally it's 3-4 hours, but since the Bonanza still had usable mains they were able to get it off the runway faster.

So, nice meeting everyone! (and don't worry about your comments, we Controllers say MUCH worse things to each other constantly.) Oh, one more thing, for those asking about a picture of me....... welllllll, let's just say I have a great personality and leave it at that ;).
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Welcome to the forum!! I hope you are working if when I fly into Addison.
 
Welcome Stephanie! The only bad experience I've ever had at ADS was with a female working tower, she gave me a 4-minute on-air lecture about having my nose gear close (but not ON!) the hold-short line for the runway - I was 10 feet short of it. She insisted that I should put my nosegear ON the hold short line despite my inability to see their juxtaposition from the cockpit. This occurred early spring of 2006.

Care to confess to a bad day?? I didn't dare ask her name... :D
 
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awesome to hear someone loves their job. makes it better for the rest of us.
 
Oooooooo..... not a chance. I don't lecture pilots until AFTER they've finished their flight and taxied in---and then it's usually a "we need to talk" comment. (which in the end is the WORST comment you can ever hear coming from a woman!)

And thanks guys for all the welcomes! I've always felt the aviation community is one of the best groups of people out there. We're all just one big dysfunctional family!
 
tmyers said:
Does anyone know what actually broke. At first I was assuming the gear box went but the mains probably wouldn't have come down. Could it have been the lone bolt that retracts and extends the nose gear. If the nose gear was jammed in the gear well and partially down I would think the Airspeed would have been off.

Glad everyone retained their cool and the outcome was as good as could be expected.
Click to expand...

Like all others I don't "know" what broke but with some experience I can give an educated guess. I'll try to explain.

The nose gear is on a strut which is the centerpiece of a trunion with two bushings up in the front of the well where it pivots back to retract. The downlock mechanism is the over-center two piece truss at the back, and the top of the truss is also the fulcrum for retract and extension. The fulcrum folds back and gear trunnion pivots on the top bushings. The retract rod is driven from the bottom of the retract gear box, and as the gear box rotates the arm pulls the retract rod, which pulls the two-piece truss over center, and levers the gear up into the well. At the forward end of the retract rod where it attaches to the upper truss lever arm there is a heim joint. The heim joint has been the source of some interest to the Beech community. Later model Bos with higher weights have suffered a break at the heim joint and a new part is specced when the assembly is reworked.

Don't quote me on this but as I recall, it goes from a 5/16" threaded shaft to a 3/8" threaded shaft, and the retract rod itself is of heavier design. In the event of a failure of any segment of the nose retract asm, the default position is for the gear to fall by gravity, the two piece truss to lock in the over-centered full down position, and the nose gear will stay that way except for a very hard landing with high force on the nose wheel.

Things that can go wrong with the setup: Upper trunnion bushings not greased often enough, causing high drag of the asm. Wheel centering bearing missing/damaged on the top of the strut, leaving the nose gear in some other position than in trail. Lever arm bushing perished, allowing the lever arm to kink or pinch on the lever rod. Fouling of the gear retract with foreign object(tow bar).

Also, if there is a fault with the nose gear retract, if the gear comes down at cruise speed, it usually will not latch over-center on the truss. However, if one is lucky, by the time the plane drops below 70kts, the truss may lock into position, or - it may not...
 
trackersocha said:
awesome to hear someone loves their job. makes it better for the rest of us.
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That's for sure, the controller at Whiteman hates, pilots, planes and people...oh and talking on the radio, other than that he's great.

I think everyone here did an exceptional job, I just don't get how the pilot didn't notice until he went to land, sure its easy to "forget" something if you are distracted, but taxi had to be different, take off for sure would have sounded and felt different, and how the hell did he get the gear up ??:mad2:
 
AddisonTowerGoddess said:
Oooooooo..... not a chance. I don't lecture pilots until AFTER they've finished their flight and taxied in---and then it's usually a "we need to talk" comment. (which in the end is the WORST comment you can ever hear coming from a woman!)

And thanks guys for all the welcomes! I've always felt the aviation community is one of the best groups of people out there. We're all just one big dysfunctional family!
Click to expand...

Welcome to POA, Stephanie! I thought you sounded great, and very professional.

We have at least two controllers on PoA that I know of: one in Appleton, WI and MarkZ out of Oswego, IL. You're in good company!
 
AddisonTowerGoddess said:
Hello everyone! (waves hand) Stephanie here. I was at work today and the pilot of a Bonanza (ha!) told me that the towbar incident was all over the internet so I had to come see for myself. Very interesting comments here. You silly pilots you. I guess it never occurred to you that a Controller would ever read the forums. But hey, I'm the first to admit that my voice is squeaky, sing-song, over the top and so sweet it will give you diabetes. But I can't help it...... I LOVE my job so much it just comes out that way. As one poster put it, it's my "radio voice" (I've always said that KADS is one of the Top 40 Radio Stations in Dallas.) You should hear me go when I've had my second/third cup of coffee in the morning (afternoon, evening, whatever)----it's a very scary thing!

But back to the Bonanza. I'm not allowed to say too much about it in a public venue (being a Fed and all) but "the most amazing thing I ever saw" was the absolute perfect landing the pilot made....... until about 2 seconds after I unkeyed the mic and the nose plowed into the runway (you can hear the pilot's reaction to THAT at the end of the recording.) And the reason we were closed for a little over two hours is because FSDO is the final authority on when an aircraft can be moved after an incident/accident. Sometimes they need to do a quick preliminary investigation before anyone is allowed to touch the aircraft. Two hours is actually pretty quick for a gear up situation. Normally it's 3-4 hours, but since the Bonanza still had usable mains they were able to get it off the runway faster.

So, nice meeting everyone! (and don't worry about your comments, we Controllers say MUCH worse things to each other constantly.) Oh, one more thing, for those asking about a picture of me....... welllllll, let's just say I have a great personality and leave it at that ;).
Click to expand...

Nice meeting you, too. You sound like a total sweetheart, if I may be so bold.
 
AddisonTowerGoddess said:
Oooooooo..... not a chance. I don't lecture pilots until AFTER they've finished their flight and taxied in---and then it's usually a "we need to talk" comment. (which in the end is the WORST comment you can ever hear coming from a woman!)

And thanks guys for all the welcomes! I've always felt the aviation community is one of the best groups of people out there. We're all just one big dysfunctional family!
Click to expand...

When my wife says "we need to talk" I know that she needs $500.00 When she says "we really need to talk" I know its going to be $1000.00 or more! :D
 
pbramlett said:
When my wife says "we need to talk" I know that she needs $500.00 When she says "we really need to talk" I know its going to be $1000.00 or more! :D
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And when your A&P says "we need to talk", better figure at least $10,000. LOL.
 
alfadog said:
And when your A&P says "we need to talk", better figure at least $10,000. LOL.
Click to expand...

When all the A&P wants to tell you on the phone is that you need to come look at something it's going to hurt. bad.
 
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