This is an excerpt from a report made to the Aviation Safety Reporting System. The narrative is written by the pilot, rather than FAA or NTSB officials. To maintain anonymity, many details, such as aircraft model or airport, are often scrubbed from the reports.
When I started the flight I had a normal taxi and run-up. Nothing seemed to be out of place. I experienced a normal takeoff with no abnormalities. Once at altitude my student pointed out the fact that the flap had become dented during some phase of flight. At this point I decided to stop the flight and head back to ZZZ.
Because the flap was dented I decided that I would take the controls and do a flapless landing.
When I started to land I put the weight of the aircraft on the main wheels and noticed that the left main wheel was now missing as the left wing started to get lower and lower. I then decided to cut the mixture and come to a complete stop on the runway and wait for assistance.
What I think happened is the one of the bolts that hold in the landing gear came loose and on takeoff came undone and took the rest of the landing gear with it. On preflight I did not see anything out of place, as well as on taxi and run-up.
When we got out of the aircraft I thought there was no landing gear and I made the right call to cut the mixture on the runway.
All things considered I think I did the best I could have for the situation, which is minimum damage to the aircraft and no one was hurt.
Primary Problem as determined by an ASRS analyst: Aircraft.
“A more though pre-flight should have found the missing bolt, Nut or scissors lung pin.”
Of course you can always do an annual inspection before each flight, but realistically, I can imagine cases where a bolt has a nut that is simply not torqued and comes loose. Or a pin that on the ground has enough forces on it to look secure but unloaded can become loose. Most owners have had the experience of finding something out during the annual that they didn’t see during ops. Even more so with a flight school plane where you don’t have that experience with the plane. I’m guessing this is a Cherokee or low wing which makes landing gear inspection awkward.
I put this on the maintenance department more than the pilots. Someone didn’t look close enough during the annual or 100 hour. Or some work was done and not properly returned to service. Either way, I doubt if more than one pilot in a thousand would have caught something during a preflight, so that 100 hour inspection is vital.
Sorry JimH and Jack, but I’m 70 and you guys sound like old codgers with nothing but gripes to offer. To me, the story is interesting. Describing how he made his decision was informative. Trying to describe what happened did not need, for me, to indicate which bolt failed. When I look at my gear legs I can imagine which of the bolted connections could cause the gear to separate.
I’m in my 70’s too, and as an engineer, I’m always looking for information that will make my flying more safe and my aircraft more reliable.
I’m not faulting the pilot. he acted very well.
I’m also an FAA Safety Rep., so I would like to pass on information like this in the seminars and webinars that I do.
BTW,the gear legs on my old Cessna are no issue, but I do looks at the nose scissor link on every preflight… I’m down there sumping the gascolator anyway.
I wish there was an edit button.
Jim, We edited it for you:)
Damn sspellcheck.
Thanks
Sorry, but without knowing more details, this story makes little sense and doesn’t do anything to further aircraft safety
I agree. Without knowing what caused the problem, it is difficult for the rest of us pilots to know what to inspect to prevent us from having the same problem.
The NTSB reports are marginally better, with some data on make and model, age of the aircraft, pilot experience, and pics of the damage and, in some cases actual analysis of root cause of the failure of parts.
A lot of us fly old aircraft with parts that are approaching the wear-out point in their life curve. I’d like to not have to experience the failure of aging, worn parts.
Knowing what critical parts are approaching failure allows us to continue flying with confidence and have reliable aircraft.
The point of an ASRA may be to cover a pilot for something they did wrong so that the FAA can’t take action on it.
Or it may be to bring to someone’s attention a safety issue. So this guy is an instructor, he looks at the plane and nothing appears out of place or a problem during pre-flight.
Now, I don’t carry the tools needed to check every bolt on the landing gear to make sure it is tight. This is something that should be safety wired or using a castle nut, etc. that I just might not be able to get to. So, what exactly am I supposed to do for a pre-flight? I’ve never had the gear fall off, but I have had the bungee break on a C77R. Makes steering on landing a real problem — rudder and steering worked fine before take-off.
So all the arm-chair mechanics now get to take pot shots. But, put yourself in this situation. You can’t get out to look at the gear on a low wing to make sure it is still down and “welded”. So when you land and you are sitting lower than you expect (this was someone who had GREAT situational awareness, that he was lower than normal at that point)…. I think he did all he could do.
A more thourgh pre-flight should have found the missing bolt, but or scissors lung pin.
Bolt, but or critter pin.
BTW
on a BE400 the nose wheel scissors is always disconnect for towing. Failing to reinstall the $2,000 pin will allow the nose wheel to fall off on rotation.
I recall a PA28R pilot that took off with a 10 foot long, bright red crowbar attached.