Fearless Tower
Touchdown! Greaser!
Ever been in a Lockheed Electra?
It's similar to a DC-3 in that the windscreen is literally in your face. It's a tight cockpit. Shoulder harness won't keep your head from hitting it.
Dan Gryder Lockheed Electra Crash
- Thread starter SixPapaCharlie
- Start date
It's similar to a DC-3 in that the windscreen is literally in your face. It's a tight cockpit. Shoulder harness won't keep your head from hitting it.
woxof said:
On touchdown, always try a smooth initial brake application(except perhaps on a short runway). If you add a lot of brake quickly at first and there is a brake without pressure, directional control will be a problem. If you smoothly applied increasing brake and discover a problem, you may still have an option to do a touch and go, depending on the runway and surrounding area. Adding power makes the rudder more effective and rudder alone can straighten the aircraft for the touch and go.
StraightnLevel said:
Thinking beyond this option, it puts you back in the air, and still without brake pressure on one side - but at least you know what you're dealing with. That's better than the result we see on the video.
Now what? Aside from slowing your approach and touchdown speed to the bare minimum, what else can you do to deal with this situation? Is it better to run off the end of the runway slowly or risk a low-speed side-loading gear failure from trying to turn onto a taxiway too fast?
Once back in the air, you can now examine your options(which will vary from case to case) and then come up with a plan. What type of aircraft(Piper Cub could find a nice grass runway where brakes are not needed whereas a Lockheed twin is likely different. Where can one go to find a long runway or a wide runway or a runway where there are few obstacles or where the winds are more ideal, what is the fuel status, ARFF, etc, etc. Now you can plan.
On touchdown, always try a smooth initial brake application(except perhaps on a short runway). If you add a lot of brake quickly at first and there is a brake without pressure, directional control will be a problem. If you smoothly applied increasing brake and discover a problem, you may still have an option to do a touch and go, depending on the runway and surrounding area. Adding power makes the rudder more effective and rudder alone can straighten the aircraft for the touch and go.
StraightnLevel said:
Thinking beyond this option, it puts you back in the air, and still without brake pressure on one side - but at least you know what you're dealing with. That's better than the result we see on the video.
Now what? Aside from slowing your approach and touchdown speed to the bare minimum, what else can you do to deal with this situation? Is it better to run off the end of the runway slowly or risk a low-speed side-loading gear failure from trying to turn onto a taxiway too fast?
Once back in the air, you can now examine your options(which will vary from case to case) and then come up with a plan. What type of aircraft(Piper Cub could find a nice grass runway where brakes are not needed whereas a Lockheed twin is likely different. Where can one go to find a long runway or a wide runway or a runway where there are few obstacles or where the winds are more ideal, what is the fuel status, ARFF, etc, etc. Now you can plan.
RyanShort1
Final Approach
Is there room for a helmet?
OneCharlieTango
Cleared for Takeoff
- Joined
- Dec 21, 2018
- Messages
- 1,165
- Display Name
Display name:
OneCharlieTango
I’ve been in a DC-3 and I’m pretty sure shoulder harnesses would be protective.
Dave Theisen
Final Approach
Pretty short strip. By the time they got on the brakes and realized they had a problem, I don’t think a go-around was feasible.
FlightofTwo
Pre-takeoff checklist
And with an unlocked tailwheel, once it went, they were pretty much along for the ride, and adding full power and trying to do a go-around could have ended up worse than they already got.
Yeah, I'm not fan of Dan's, but by the time an issue became apparent a go around would have resulted in a much higher energy crash into the trees at the end of the strip.
Based on what we know today, the second guessing should be on what might have been done differently to prevent the brake failure to begin with.
Klaus M
Pre-takeoff checklist
Working on aircraft with no factory support for parts, they had to fabricate the brake hose. If you fabricate anything you test it. In this case the aircraft should have been put on jacks and the gear swung. Most likely the brake hose would have failed in the shop and this would not have happened.
Even if you replace a brake hose on a supported Piper, Cessna or Mooney the gear should be swung and inspected that nothing is touching or under stress.
Yep. That seems valid. And the pilot's comment imply, though doesn't outright state, that they didn't do that test.
Lindberg
Final Approach
Or detect it earlier.....
Yeah, sure.
I guess I'm looking the other way on that one because I can't remember if I've ever done a before landing brake check. I know my checklist doesn't have it, but think someone mentioned that his did.
When you land a single engine taildragger, you should be ready to add power to either straighten out or go-around if able(and necessary). On a twin, you should be ready to use differential power to straighten out(or at least prevent you from heading toward an obstacle. It is more likely that you will be ready to do this maneuver in the short time available for a positive recovery if you mentioned it to yourself as a reminder prior to touchdown. A simple increase in power on the left engine at the appropriate time would have straightened things out at least to a certain extent. One can even use a lot of power to intentionally groundloop if an obstacle is looming ahead.