How to flunk your Commercial checkride

TangoWhiskey

TangoWhiskey

Touchdown! Greaser!
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3Green
From this month's NASA ASRS Callback issue:

I was administering a commercial pilot practical test.
The applicant’s first approach and landing were very good.
He made a touch-and-go and failed to extend the landing
gear for the second approach. I saw he was delaying
extension to help extend his glide on a 180 degree power-off
approach. We became accustomed to the gear horn and I
let myself get distracted by an aircraft approaching the
parallel runway. As we overshot our turn, we had to s-turn
back onto a very short final. Suddenly, I realized the gear
was up. I took the controls, and initiated a go-around.
Before I could arrest the descent, the aircraft touched the
runway, breaking the marker beacon antenna and
abrading the very tips of the prop blades. Too close! I’ve
amended my procedures to: 1) terminate marginal
maneuvers earlier, 2) allow no operations below pattern
altitude with the gear up....
 
I'll remember that on my commercial checkride.
 
Minimum final pre-landing checklist review is a long one:

GEAR DOWN.
WIND ?
 
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Wonder how that examiner's reexamination with the FAA went? They usually pull your designation if you let something like this happen, and an ASRS report will not shield you from a 709 ride.
 
We had a sad fatality at my home field a short while ago when someone started a go-around after their prop hit on a gear up landing.... the damage evidently damaged the plane enough to cause the crash shortly after. I could envision a prop shearing off, or engine damage.... after the props touch the lesson is to just let it land.... expensive, but far safer.
 
Troy Whistman said:
abrading the very tips of the prop blades
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That's about as close as you can get! Good thing your reaction wasn't a quarter second later.

So, will you be giving this student another checkride anytime soon?

Walter
 
walterman said:
That's about as close as you can get! Good thing your reaction wasn't a quarter second later.

So, will you be giving this student another checkride anytime soon?

Walter
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It wasn't him. He is quoting a report that the examiner filed after the incident.
 
Kelly said:
We had a sad fatality at my home field a short while ago when someone started a go-around after their prop hit on a gear up landing.... the damage evidently damaged the plane enough to cause the crash shortly after. I could envision a prop shearing off, or engine damage.... after the props touch the lesson is to just let it land.... expensive, but far safer.
Click to expand...
The other side of that coin is folks who kill the engine on short final to save the prop/engine when the gear won't go down and they blow the approach, come up short of the runway, and roll it up into an aluminum ball. Hey, gang, if the gear won't go down, just let the insurance company buy you a new engine and prop -- it's a lot cheaper than the alternative.
 
Ron Levy said:
The other side of that coin is folks who kill the engine on short final to save the prop/engine when the gear won't go down and they blow the approach, come up short of the runway, and roll it up into an aluminum ball. Hey, gang, if the gear won't go down, just let the insurance company buy you a new engine and prop -- it's a lot cheaper than the alternative.
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you mean like this? ;)

http://home.earthlink.net/~n6d/queen.jpg

Fly safe!

David
 
Richard said:
According to the FAA registry that puppy is flying out of Knoxville. Well, maybe it's not flying given the 25 gph per side.
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It was out of southern CA when the picture was taken. Only damage was a couple of antennas got ground off the belly, by the way.

Fly safe!

David
 
MauleSkinner said:
It was out of southern CA when the picture was taken. Only damage was a couple of antennas got ground off the belly, by the way.
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I guess in aviation it's better to be lucky than smart. Or to put it another way, even the person who puts his money on snake-eyes wins one out of every thirty-six rolls, but you don't hear the other thirty-five shooters bragging about it.
 
Ron Levy said:
I guess in aviation it's better to be lucky than smart. Or to put it another way, even the person who puts his money on snake-eyes wins one out of every thirty-six rolls, but you don't hear the other thirty-five shooters bragging about it.
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Ah...you've obviously heard the part of the story about Art Scholl in his Super Chipmunk flying close formation, with John Kazian trying to yank the nose gear down ;)
 
MauleSkinner said:
Ah...you've obviously heard the part of the story about Art Scholl in his Super Chipmunk flying close formation, with John Kazian trying to yank the nose gear down ;)
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Too bad there's no emoticon for "shudder."
 
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