flyingcheesehead
Touchdown! Greaser!
I figured I'd write this up so that others could hopefully get something from it. I've thought through the lessons I learned, and the previously-learned lessons I used.
I went to pick good ol' 71G up from annual yesterday. She was lookin' shiny, clean, and sported new brakes and a new left main tire. A thorough preflight revealed her to be in tip-top shape. Takeoff from KSBM, climb, cruise, and descent into KMSN were normal.
And then I closed runway 21 at KMSN on landing.
Winds were 19011G17 and there was a fair bit of turbulence on this late-summer afternoon. I was getting tossed around a bit, but really not too bad - it was a nice day to fly. I came in and had a smooth touchdown, but there ended the smoothness.
The plane pulled left, which I originally thought was due to a gust (that's exactly what it felt like), so I corrected with right rudder. Then she pulled left harder and began to shimmy like mad as I slowed. I added more right rudder and some right brake and relaxed the left (crosswind-correcting) aileron, and a bit of right brake, adding more as I pulled to a stop and looked out the window at what I knew I'd see: The flat left main tire flopping around on the wheel.
"Tower, 71G's gonna need assistance on runway 21, I lost a tire," I reported. They had already cleared a Cherokee to position and hold behind me, and I think there were a couple of planes on approach to 21 that got diverted to 18. Tower got the Cherokee taxiing on their way to a different runway, and a moment later informed me that an ops truck was on their way. I requested, and was granted, permission to shut down - I didn't want to shut off the radio without telling them.
I got out and took some pictures:
Hard to see the bad tire here, but you can see that the left wing is lower than the right one.
Here's a close-up of the left main gear.
The ops truck showed up, took a quick look, and then left to escort the linemen out to the runway. They came out to the runway in a tug with a dolly to put the wheel in:
And then towed the plane back to the maintenance hangar. I rode in the ops van.
The club treasurer, who had given me a ride to KSBM to pick the plane up, met me at the East ramp and commented that it must have been a big adrenaline hit. It really wasn't - I was cool as a cucumber. I only hope I can handle in-flight emergencies that well!
The incident didn't really teach me much in the way of new lessons, but it re-affirmed some valuable lessons learned previously. This was actually my *third* flat on an airplane - First one was during my Private training in a 172, also at MSN, on the left main, on what was going to be a touch & go on runway 18. The second was in May, when the tailwheel went flat on the Citabria. The first one was attributed to a defective inner tube, and on both of the previous ones I had noticed, and asked the CFI I was flying with, about the state of the tire prior to the flight. Both CFI's had said it was OK, but a few landings later it was not - Oops. This time, the tire was brand spankin' new - This was its first landing, and it appeared to be in great shape prior to takeoff.
So, the lessons learned and used:
1) Fly the damn airplane, chock to chock! This cannot be emphasized enough. You can see in the pictures that I managed to keep the plane on the centerline all the way to a stop - Just like you don't let ATC fly the plane, don't let the plane fly you and don't be afraid to use the full deflection of flight controls when necessary to make the plane go where you want it to go.
2) Don't be in too big of a hurry to not be a pain to ATC. When I had a flat tire as a student pilot, ATC asked if I could taxi off the runway, which I attempted to do (and failed - Full power would not budge it). Had I been able to make the plane move in that case, I might have caused additional damage to the tire or wheel. This time, I did the right thing and did not even attempt to taxi the plane - I simply brought it to a safe stop on the runway and immediately told ATC I was going to need assistance. They got the right people moving, and we were off the runway in under 15 minutes. There was also no damage at all to the rim, and only very limited damage to the tire - I would be surprised if we can't use the tire, though I'm guessing the inner tube will need to be replaced because I'm guessing that is what failed.
3) If something doesn't feel right, it probably isn't. If something doesn't look right, it probably isn't. Check it out. My first two flat tires, I should have insisted on an actual tire pressure check before flight instead of taking the CFI's "it looks okay to me." On all three, though, I knew something wasn't right and checked on it - In the two Cessnas by looking out the window, and in the Citabria by opening the door and leaning out to look at the tailwheel. Good thing, too - On any of them, further operation of the airplane could have caused a much worse situation.
So, I walked away and we'll be able to use the airplane again, and probably the wheel and tire too, by sometime tomorrow. (Not worth calling in weekend maintenance for something so small at the home drome!)
I went to pick good ol' 71G up from annual yesterday. She was lookin' shiny, clean, and sported new brakes and a new left main tire. A thorough preflight revealed her to be in tip-top shape. Takeoff from KSBM, climb, cruise, and descent into KMSN were normal.
And then I closed runway 21 at KMSN on landing.
Winds were 19011G17 and there was a fair bit of turbulence on this late-summer afternoon. I was getting tossed around a bit, but really not too bad - it was a nice day to fly. I came in and had a smooth touchdown, but there ended the smoothness.
The plane pulled left, which I originally thought was due to a gust (that's exactly what it felt like), so I corrected with right rudder. Then she pulled left harder and began to shimmy like mad as I slowed. I added more right rudder and some right brake and relaxed the left (crosswind-correcting) aileron, and a bit of right brake, adding more as I pulled to a stop and looked out the window at what I knew I'd see: The flat left main tire flopping around on the wheel.
"Tower, 71G's gonna need assistance on runway 21, I lost a tire," I reported. They had already cleared a Cherokee to position and hold behind me, and I think there were a couple of planes on approach to 21 that got diverted to 18. Tower got the Cherokee taxiing on their way to a different runway, and a moment later informed me that an ops truck was on their way. I requested, and was granted, permission to shut down - I didn't want to shut off the radio without telling them.
I got out and took some pictures:
Hard to see the bad tire here, but you can see that the left wing is lower than the right one.
Here's a close-up of the left main gear.
The ops truck showed up, took a quick look, and then left to escort the linemen out to the runway. They came out to the runway in a tug with a dolly to put the wheel in:
And then towed the plane back to the maintenance hangar. I rode in the ops van.
The club treasurer, who had given me a ride to KSBM to pick the plane up, met me at the East ramp and commented that it must have been a big adrenaline hit. It really wasn't - I was cool as a cucumber. I only hope I can handle in-flight emergencies that well!
The incident didn't really teach me much in the way of new lessons, but it re-affirmed some valuable lessons learned previously. This was actually my *third* flat on an airplane - First one was during my Private training in a 172, also at MSN, on the left main, on what was going to be a touch & go on runway 18. The second was in May, when the tailwheel went flat on the Citabria. The first one was attributed to a defective inner tube, and on both of the previous ones I had noticed, and asked the CFI I was flying with, about the state of the tire prior to the flight. Both CFI's had said it was OK, but a few landings later it was not - Oops. This time, the tire was brand spankin' new - This was its first landing, and it appeared to be in great shape prior to takeoff.
So, the lessons learned and used:
1) Fly the damn airplane, chock to chock! This cannot be emphasized enough. You can see in the pictures that I managed to keep the plane on the centerline all the way to a stop - Just like you don't let ATC fly the plane, don't let the plane fly you and don't be afraid to use the full deflection of flight controls when necessary to make the plane go where you want it to go.
2) Don't be in too big of a hurry to not be a pain to ATC. When I had a flat tire as a student pilot, ATC asked if I could taxi off the runway, which I attempted to do (and failed - Full power would not budge it). Had I been able to make the plane move in that case, I might have caused additional damage to the tire or wheel. This time, I did the right thing and did not even attempt to taxi the plane - I simply brought it to a safe stop on the runway and immediately told ATC I was going to need assistance. They got the right people moving, and we were off the runway in under 15 minutes. There was also no damage at all to the rim, and only very limited damage to the tire - I would be surprised if we can't use the tire, though I'm guessing the inner tube will need to be replaced because I'm guessing that is what failed.
3) If something doesn't feel right, it probably isn't. If something doesn't look right, it probably isn't. Check it out. My first two flat tires, I should have insisted on an actual tire pressure check before flight instead of taking the CFI's "it looks okay to me." On all three, though, I knew something wasn't right and checked on it - In the two Cessnas by looking out the window, and in the Citabria by opening the door and leaning out to look at the tailwheel. Good thing, too - On any of them, further operation of the airplane could have caused a much worse situation.
So, I walked away and we'll be able to use the airplane again, and probably the wheel and tire too, by sometime tomorrow. (Not worth calling in weekend maintenance for something so small at the home drome!)
