AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2016 - 96

P&E

NEVER AGAIN

Nose to the grindstone
Gear issue complicates instrument practice
BY TOMMY LENT

96 | AOPA PILOT December 2016

emergency manual hand pump. No joy. I had tried recycling the
gear several times, as well. No joy. As if we needed another issue,
the numerous gear cycling attempts had overheated the gear
pump, and so on the last cycle the main landing gear didn't even
appear to be in its complete down position. We hand-pumped it
down the final time.
About 45 minutes after our ordeal had begun, our A&P communicated some very scary-sounding words: "Guys, you're going to
have to land with the nose gear up." My instructor and I discussed
how best to accomplish this task. Land on the asphalt? Land on
the dirt beside the runway? Land with the main gear up? Main gear
down? The senior A&P strongly objected to attempting to land on
the dirt. He said he had witnessed that before, and the airplane nose
had dug into the dirt, flipping the airplane onto its back. We decided
to land on the asphalt with the main landing gear down.
Several neighbors who had been listening on the CTAF had
assembled with their fire extinguishers and were instructed to line
the runway as best they could. At this point, I privately wondered
if having plenty of fuel was a blessing after all. Additionally, a soft
touchdown was paramount because we did not know whether
both mains were in their locked position.
After reviewing the emergency landing procedure, we agreed
that my instructor would land the airplane from the right seat,
holding the nose off as long as he could. I would cut the engine

SARAH HANSON

THINGS STARTED OUT normally on June 23,
2010, as my flight instructor and I began
another instrument flight lesson. Our
plan had been to fly from Midland, Texas'
Skywest Airport to San Angelo Regional/
Mathis Field Airport in San Angelo; do a few
instrument approaches; then fly to Midland
International Airport for a few more
approaches before returning to Skywest. It
was a beautiful CAVU day.
We were flying in a 1971 Cessna 177
Cardinal RG that I owned with two partners. When we made initial contact with San
Angelo Approach at Mathis Field, we learned
that the airport's instrument landing system
was offline and no instrument approaches
were being allowed. That was a surprise, as
we hadn't seen any notices to airmen, but the
problem had occurred after we launched. We
shrugged and told the control tower our plan
to return to Midland.
On final approach to Runway 28 on the
first approach, I lowered the gear handle to extend the
landing gear and held my finger on the light, as taught,
waiting for it to illuminate green, indicating that the gear
was down and locked-but the green light never came
on. I looked at the mirror mounted below the left wing
and noticed, with a slight bit of alarm, that the main
landing gear was down and appeared to be in its normal position, but the nose gear was nowhere to be seen.
My flight instructor said, "Well, that's not good."
I cycled the gear once again with the same result. We
declared a missed approach at Midland and headed
back to Skywest. My instructor used his cellphone to
call our local A&P. The A&P contacted the senior A&P
at Skywest, who also came out.
Now on the Skywest CTAF, we did a low-and-slow
fly-by so that the assembled ground group could try to
ascertain what was going on with the nose gear. They
reported back to us that "the nose gear is in its stowed
position and not even trying to come down." They had
us try a couple of passes down the runway, bouncing
down hard on the mains, trying to dislodge the nose
gear in case it was jammed. (Bouncing on landing
had never been a problem for me to accomplish). No
joy. We also tried pumping the gear down with the

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2016