Message-ID: <001401c44c02$81edd6f0$2402a8c0@EDWARD>
From: "Ed Anderson" <eanderson@carolina.rr.com>
To: "Rotary motors in aircraft" <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
References: <list-141703@logan.com>
Subject: Re: [FlyRotary] Not my best landing
Date: Sun, 6 Jun 2004 16:11:52 -0400
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Glad to hear the damage was no worst that it was, Steve.  Distraction is the
single biggest cause of such types of incidents.  Its been say of
retractable gears - there are those who have landed gear up and those who
will - so you go yours out of the way early.  Its got to be aggravating when
there are other things you want to get fixed.  Hope you are back in the air
soon.

Ed

Ed Anderson
RV-6A N494BW Rotary Powered
Matthews, NC
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve Brooks" <steve@tsisp.com>
To: "Rotary motors in aircraft" <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
Sent: Sunday, June 06, 2004 12:19 PM
Subject: [FlyRotary] Not my best landing


> I made my 6th flight today, and after flying for .8 hours, came in to land
> after I noticed that I had a vacuum failure, and did not put the nose gear
> down.  Talk about running my day, it definitely was not good, but could
have
> been much worse.
>
> I was evidently distracted by wondering about what happened to the vacuum,
> instead of doing my landing checklist.  I was worried that I could have
lost
> a belt, so I was keeping a watchful eye on the temperatures.  I did,
> however, turn on the boost pump, and check fuel.  I haven't been used to
> having to put the gear down, and coupled with the distraction, and
> stupidity, was the formal for a problem.
>
> I came in high and a little on the fast side, in fact, I couldn't figure
out
> why I wasn't descending, and bleeding speed.  How about the fact that the
> gear was up.  I was deploying both rudders, and marveling over how well
that
> worked to get the altitude problem solved.  Apparently the AEX was in the
> process of extending the gear when I touched down, which probably saved me
> from allot more damage.  I landed a little faster than I had been, and sat
> it down without letting it float along like all of my other landings.  If
I
> had landed like I did before, the extra 4 or 5 seconds could have let the
> gear get all the way down...but it didn't.
>
> Damage was really no too bad.  Ground off the face of the landing gear
strut
> about 1/8" ground the front of the castoring nose wheel casting flat in
one
> spot, and ground off about half of the hockey puck.  As soon as I realized
> what had happened, I pulled back all the way on the elevator, and hit the
> nose gear switch, which was already turning.  The nose came up and I was
> still rolling at maybe 20-30 MPH.  I pulled off on a taxiway, shut down,
and
> got out to inspect the damage.  I expected the worst, but really was
pretty
> minimal.  I decided that everything was good enough to taxi back to the
> hanger, where I pulled the nose cover to check for any other damage.
> Everything inside looked fine.  The nose lift is fine.  The landing gear
> strut will have to be replaced, as well as the lower casting on the nose
> wheel assembly.  I may forget allot of things in the future, but I'll bet
> that landing gear won't be one of them.
>
> I pulled the engine cowling, and the belt on the smog pump that I use for
> vacuum was fine, so I still don't know the cause of the vacuum problem.  I
> need to pull the canard, and I/P cover anyway to troubleshoot a NAV system
> problem, so I'll get to the bottom of it when I do that.  I'll have plenty
> of time while I'm waiting on parts.
> The only damage to the nose at all was a couple of cracks in the micro
> around the hockey puck.  I'll have to sand it down to get the rest of the
> puck off anyways, so that isn't a big deal.
>
> The good news is that my noise in the right main wheel is fixed.  I took
it
> apart, really didn't find anything, but I repacked the bearings, and put
it
> all back together and the noise is gone.  I guess that it must have been
an
> alignment issue with the disk or something.  I was careful to snug the
bolts
> with the same torque while mounting the disk to the wheel.  I think that
may
> have been the issue.
>
> Also the engine continues to run superbly.  I still am running warmer than
I
> like, but I have a plan to remedy that.  The rotary engine is so smooth
and
> quiet that you forget it's running almost.
>
> Steve Brooks
> Cozy MKIV N75CZ
> Turbo rotary
>
>
>
>
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