Emergency gear extension in IMC

gprellwitz

gprellwitz

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Grant Prellwitz
The emergency gear extension handle on the Bonanza is on the floor behind the copilot's seat. It requires about 50 turns of a small crank. I'm sitting here trying to envision a single pilot (and sole occupant) operating that in IMC without an autopilot. It seems a situation tailor-made for causing vertigo, not to mention the enforced lack of attention to the instruments. Any real-life experiences with it?

Personally, I'd definitely use any passenger or autopilot in this case, if I had them available. In the posited situation, they aren't, so I'd try to get out of IMC before manually extending the gear. If none of those mitigation strategies are available, what do you do?

Certainly, this constitutes at least an urgent, if not an emergency situation. Do you ask ATC to notify you of any deviations as you try to lower the gear? Do you just accept the damage to the plane and land gear-up to avoid the risk of loss of control? Do you practice this ahead of time with a safety pilot? (If you choose that, I think it needs to be done at night or in IMC, because a hood won't work well with all the contortions you're going to have to make.)

If I had a simultaneous vaccuum failure, I think I'd start "leaning" - towards putting it down with the gear retracted, since I'm sure I can do that safely, while there is a real risk of disorientation if I attempt the extension, and I wouldn't want the gear only partially extended.

Discussion?
 
I've tried it and agree, very dangerous maneuver. Especially in turbulent IMC.

I would get out of IMC or land gear up in low IMC with no other choices before trying to crank that thing down with no autopilot.

It's just not worth the risk IMO.
 
Sounds like a setup for loss of control. In that plane I would advise ATC, then request vector or climb to visual conditions if possible.

My plane is simple - pull a lever at my right knee 90 degrees and gravity does the rest. At most maybe 10% of the time I have to jerk the stick a little to get the nosegear to lock.

This is one of the reasons I would not want to fly hard IFR without an autopilot. Heck, come to think of it I don't like flying VFR without an autopilot.
 
Certainly I wouldn't hesitate to ask passengers or ATC to do whatever is necessary in an emergency or near emergent condition.

Fortunately I have an autopilot, and the emergency gear extension in the Navion is just a bigger handle.
 
gprellwitz said:
Do you practice this ahead of time with a safety pilot? (If you choose that, I think it needs to be done at night or in IMC, because a hood won't work well with all the contortions you're going to have to make.)
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Absolutely! It will give you a good gauge on your ability to do it in the time of need, and may clarify a better answer specifically for you if you ran into this situation
 
gprellwitz said:
The emergency gear extension handle on the Bonanza is on the floor behind the copilot's seat. It requires about 50 turns of a small crank. I'm sitting here trying to envision a single pilot (and sole occupant) operating that in IMC without an autopilot. It seems a situation tailor-made for causing vertigo, not to mention the enforced lack of attention to the instruments. Any real-life experiences with it?

Personally, I'd definitely use any passenger or autopilot in this case, if I had them available. In the posited situation, they aren't, so I'd try to get out of IMC before manually extending the gear. If none of those mitigation strategies are available, what do you do?

Certainly, this constitutes at least an urgent, if not an emergency situation. Do you ask ATC to notify you of any deviations as you try to lower the gear? Do you just accept the damage to the plane and land gear-up to avoid the risk of loss of control? Do you practice this ahead of time with a safety pilot? (If you choose that, I think it needs to be done at night or in IMC, because a hood won't work well with all the contortions you're going to have to make.)

If I had a simultaneous vaccuum failure, I think I'd start "leaning" - towards putting it down with the gear retracted, since I'm sure I can do that safely, while there is a real risk of disorientation if I attempt the extension, and I wouldn't want the gear only partially extended.

Discussion?
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It's really not that difficult but I do recommend you try it under the hood with a SP or CFII. You might even do the first one without the hood just to get a feel for it. In this practice and in the real world it's best to perform the task on a vector at a safe altitude. You definitely don't want to try this halfway down an approach. You'll also find that it's far less effort if you slow down before you begin to about 1.3 Vs (flaps up) or 1.3 Vso (flaps down)

The recommended technique is to break the extension into several segments of crank, adjust power, trim, repeat. Basically, you pick a number between 5 and 10 inclusive and make that many turns on the crank handle, add a bit of throttle to maintain airspeed, and then retrim. I recommend you visually focus on the AI during the cranking and trimming. Fortunately the crank is located where most pilots can operate it without taking their eyes off the flight instruments.

I prefer leaving the flaps up in a Bonanza but you should try it both ways and make your own choice on that. Flaps down is a little easier to crank but requires a lot more power (and right rudder or you'll probably drift off heading).
 
gismo said:
It's really not that difficult but I do recommend you try it under the hood with a SP or CFII. You might even do the first one without the hood just to get a feel for it. In this practice and in the real world it's best to perform the task on a vector at a safe altitude. You definitely don't want to try this halfway down an approach. You'll also find that it's far less effort if you slow down before you begin to about 1.3 Vs (flaps up) or 1.3 Vso (flaps down)

The recommended technique is to break the extension into several segments of crank, adjust power, trim, repeat. Basically, you pick a number between 5 and 10 inclusive and make that many turns on the crank handle, add a bit of throttle to maintain airspeed, and then retrim. I recommend you visually focus on the AI during the cranking and trimming. Fortunately the crank is located where most pilots can operate it without taking their eyes off the flight instruments.

I prefer leaving the flaps up in a Bonanza but you should try it both ways and make your own choice on that. Flaps down is a little easier to crank but requires a lot more power (and right rudder or you'll probably drift off heading).
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Thanks for the tips, Lance. I had the opportunity to go up again in the Bonanza yesterday. Didn't have a hood with me, but I did reacquaint myself with the location of the handle. It was more between and directly aft of the front seats than my faulty memory suggested, so it''s easier to reach than I recollected. That said, it's still probably suboptimal placement, but no more difficult to reach then the fuel selector, and yes, you can still watch the panel while operating the manual gear extension.
 
Grant have you tried it with the hood on and a safety pilot? Just curious as it sounds like it might be worth a try so get the feel for what it really is like.
 
flyingmoose said:
Grant have you tried it with the hood on and a safety pilot? Just curious as it sounds like it might be worth a try so get the feel for what it really is like.
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Not yet, but that's on the list to do. I think the hood will be more effective at simulating IMC in this situation than I originally thought.
 
Not a great design, IMHO. I've done an emergency extension in a Mooney in IMC with no autopilot due to total electrical failure and it was a non-event because the manual extension handle is on the floor between the seats and you never have to take your eyes off the panel while doing the 50 pumps or so it takes to get the gear down.
 
gprellwitz said:
Do you ask ATC to notify you of any deviations as you try to lower the gear?
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I came close to this situation once where I was in a Duchess and was not getting a nose-gear down indication. Also did not have a working A/P. Ultimately got it resolved, but I did contemplate what to do if I had to perform the emergency gear extension (considerably easier than a Bo or Baron, but still requires you to have your head down inside the cockpit).

My plan was to declare an emergency and ask ATC for vectors to a fix/intersection out of the way of people and traffic. I was in San Diego, so I was going to ask for a fix off the coast and ask for a block altitude. If I couldn't get it down quickly or if I was having difficulty controlling while doing it, I was prepared to say 'screw it' and bring it in with the nose wheel up.

As the new owner of a Baron who flies a fair amount of SPIFR, I intend to keep my A/P in working order and will probably practice the emergency gear extension myself until I am very comfortable with it. I would do my best to trim the airplane up as stable as possible and then probably try something along the lines of 5-10 turns on the crank at a time until I get the gear fully down (basically turning back forward to the panel in between to maintain the reference). Now, keep in mind, this is just me thinking out loud - I cannot say this is the best method, but it is something I would want to practice once in a while.
 
Like Lance said, do a twist'n'trim regime, and should be no big deal. If you have the combination of gear failure and electrical failure, *and* IMC, it just ain't your day.
 
Having worked for Beechcraft East in TEB and been a BPPP instructor for 10 years, I was surprised at the number of Beech pilots that had never done an emergency extension. It soon became SOP to do at least one during a rental checkout and during the VFR training portion of the BPPP. Most of the pilots maintained respectable control during the exercise. I had them do pretty much as Lance suggested. Take their time, turn +/- 10 turns, trim, rest and collect their thoughts, then continue. After they thought they were finished, most of them found there were still a couple of turns left, even after three green lights. Most of them were extremely thankful for the exercise even though they felt as though they had been beaten with a lead filled rubber hose afterwards. Everyone that files a Bo or Baron should practice a gear extension every six months or so, just to remember the good feeling after it is done. Oh yeah, don't forget to pull the gear CB before, and after, push it back in and stow the handle.

Noah Werka
 
Ah Beech - such great designs. Also sporting the retardo gear/flap switches.
 
EdFred said:
Ah Beech - such great designs. Also sporting the retardo gear/flap switches.
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yes, it is. The bonanza gear system suffers less issues than virtually any other.
 
EdFred said:
Till ya gotta put it down.
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it's actually pretty foolproof, when the crank hits the stop, it's down no question. OTOH on your comanche you need to take more care. Following an manual extension I'd advocate resting yout foot against the comanche emergency extension handle to give it a little extra forward holding power during the touchdown and rollout. Odds are the reason you had to use it was weak bungees, so you need all the help you can get in that case.
 
JHW said:
it's actually pretty foolproof, when the crank hits the stop, it's down no question.
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I can also crawl a mile on my hands and knees, but I'd rather walk. ;)
 
It's really not that big of a deal depending on how tall you are and how far forward your seat is. For those on the shorter side it's a bit more difficult.

As Lance suggests..the key is..to slow down.

Like anything..practice makes perfect..go give it a shot.
 
EdFred said:
I can also crawl a mile on my hands and knees, but I'd rather walk. ;)
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here's an idea. Let's each pull the CB on our gear motors, I'll do the emergency extension on my beech, you do yours on your comanche. Then we'll each do 5 landings with the gear in that configuration. Then we'll get someone to compare how much sweat is under each of our armpits.
 
If you manually extend the gear in such a fashion, how do you retract it afterward? Do you have to crank it back up?
 
SkyHog said:
If you manually extend the gear in such a fashion, how do you retract it afterward? Do you have to crank it back up?
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In a Bonanza you stow the handle, push teh circuit breaker back in, and then put the gear selector UP and up it comes. You do not crank it back up.
 
JHW said:
here's an idea. Let's each pull the CB on our gear motors, I'll do the emergency extension on my beech, you do yours on your comanche. Then we'll each do 5 landings with the gear in that configuration. Then we'll get someone to compare how much sweat is under each of our armpits.
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5 emergency gear extensions and you're on. Of course I have to reset mine each time. And why would I be sweating? I'm not the one working out in the airplane.
 
EdFred said:
5 emergency gear extensions and you're on.

I'f course I have to reset mine each time.
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easy enough. I'm doing my annual now. I did that many just last night in the course of checking things out

you should be sweating because of the history of comanche gear collapses following manual extension
 

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JHW said:
you should be sweating because of the history of comanche gear collapses following manual extension
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Why would that make me sweat? If it collapses, it collapses. But with new bungees, I'm not worried.
 
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