N747JB
Final Approach
I flew to Destin on Friday, dodged t-storms and showers for most of the way, shot a GPS approach to 600 ft and landed with a 12 gusting to 17 knot crosswind. I figured that was the challenging flight of the weekend. We had a meeting today about a new restaurant that we are investing in at 1:00 just west of our home, so I figured if we got back to FTY by noon, we could drop the dog off and make it to the meeting. Of course we left a little late, but after spending an hour in the soup and shooting a perfect ILS, well a pretty good ILS, I broke out at 500 feet with the runway dead ahead. 100 knots across the fence, pull the power back and touch the mains right at the 1000 foot mark. Great so far, it's 12:08 and we've still got plenty of time! Until I lowered the nose, then all hell breaks loose!! I knew immediately what it was, I had a flat nose wheel. I let it slow down without a lot of braking, called the tower to tell them I was stuck on the runway and shut it down.
There was a Citation waiting to take off and another jet on the approach about 5 miles behind me, we heard them go missed. The FBO sent out the wrong tug at first, a tow bar wasn't going to work, so the guy turned around and got the electric one that lifts the nose wheel. It's painfully slow waiting in the middle of the runway for something that travels at the speed of a mall walker!!
He finally arrived, we got it loaded and rode with him the the maintenance hangar, where the other lineman picked my wife up with the golf cart to get my truck so we could load all our junk and go. We made it to our meeting 15 minutes late, but at least we had a good story! Time to spare, go by air!
This is my co-pilot waiting on the tow!
And of course the tire itself!
There was a Citation waiting to take off and another jet on the approach about 5 miles behind me, we heard them go missed. The FBO sent out the wrong tug at first, a tow bar wasn't going to work, so the guy turned around and got the electric one that lifts the nose wheel. It's painfully slow waiting in the middle of the runway for something that travels at the speed of a mall walker!!
He finally arrived, we got it loaded and rode with him the the maintenance hangar, where the other lineman picked my wife up with the golf cart to get my truck so we could load all our junk and go. We made it to our meeting 15 minutes late, but at least we had a good story! Time to spare, go by air!
This is my co-pilot waiting on the tow!
And of course the tire itself!
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