May 26 2021 Cardinal gear up Venice Beach, FL

PeterNSteinmetz

PeterNSteinmetz

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PeterNSteinmetz
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“Around 11:45 a.m. today, a single-engine, four-seater Cessna aircraft made a gear-up landing at Venice Municipal Airport. The Cessna landed without its retractable landing gear fully extended.

Venice Police and Venice Fire Rescue responded. The plane was carrying two people, a pilot and a passenger; neither was injured.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has been notified.”

a51b03fae649caa8e6c21219de4fcccd.jpg
 
I'm on vacation in Venice right now. I was here then but didn't hear about it until you just posted it.
 
“Well, may as well break out the Bug-B-Gone while I wait for them to bring out the jacks . . .”
 
AKBill said:
My mother way happy to hear my plane has a fixed gear. She said at least you won't forget to put the gear down...:rolleyes:
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I'm willing to give C-flavored high wing RG drivers the benefit here. The fail mode is wobble, not gravity over-center down. Former which equals what you see in the picture, upon weight on wheels.

This is def not the market timing to be looking for a replacement with an insurance check. And as been highlighted already, the thinning of the herd further worsens the economics case for those who attempt to provide aftermarket support to this orphanage. We don't know what the hull value agreement was for this particular bird, but if it that hull value hasn't been re-negotiated since covid, this one is probably toast.
 
Looking at the marks on the runway, it appears that the gear had been cycled, but was not completely down. My guess is that it was in the weird looking "dangling" phase that is a normal part of the retraction-extension operation of these Cessna RGs.

a51b03fae649caa8e6c21219de4fcccd.jpg


Note the two black marks on either side of the white skid mark. The fueselage is white, and the tires, of course, leave black skid marks.
That's just my opinion, but I'm surely no expert.

Cheers,
Grog
 
Capngrog said:
Looking at the marks on the runway, it appears that the gear had been cycled, but was not completely down. My guess is that it was in the weird looking "dangling" phase that is a normal part of the retraction-extension operation of these Cessna RGs.

a51b03fae649caa8e6c21219de4fcccd.jpg


Note the two black marks on either side of the white skid mark. The fueselage is white, and the tires, of course, leave black skid marks.
That's just my opinion, but I'm surely no expert.

Cheers,
Grog
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I think you might be looking at the centerline paint.
 
Tarheel;

I think you are correct, and as pointed out by pmanton, the pilot landed precisely on the runway center line. Fortunately for me, I'm an old hand at being incorrect, so I'll only sulk in my corner for 23 seconds or so.

Thanks for your input.

Cheers,
Grog
 
The question is whether this was failure to operate the handle or a failure in the extension system. Cardinals are not unknown for gear problems. The flight school I learned at had issues with that not he pair they had. Years later someone was reading a crash report where the plane crashed because the pilot's four-year-old was flying while he attempted to urinate into the hydraulic reservoir. I immediately responded, "It has to be a Cardinal." It was always the joke that you could do that in an emergency (the hydraulic reservoir is inside the cabin).
 
Although forgetting to lower the gear is a common cause, I would not jump to conclusion on this because I too had a gear failure in flight. In my case, the rear wheels were fine, but the nose collapsed because the "trunnion assembly had rotated slightly on the strut preventing the nose gear from locking" (those were the FAA's words). There are other failure modes. If you lost all hyraulic fluid, there is nothing you can do to lower the gear in these airplanes.
 
flyingron said:
The question is whether this was failure to operate the handle or a failure in the extension system. Cardinals are not unknown for gear problems. The flight school I learned at had issues with that not he pair they had. Years later someone was reading a crash report where the plane crashed because the pilot's four-year-old was flying while he attempted to urinate into the hydraulic reservoir. I immediately responded, "It has to be a Cardinal." It was always the joke that you could do that in an emergency (the hydraulic reservoir is inside the cabin).
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There was a story in one of the flying magazines a long time ago. A Centurion couldn’t get the wheels down. Pilot was chatting with an A&P troubleshooting it trying all kinds of things. A&P finally asks “how much coffee did you drink this morning?” It worked. He whizzed in the master cylinder and pumped them down. It was a pinhole leak that had drained the cylinder. Most of the system still had juice, just needed a little more to get it to work.
 
That aluminum plane will fly again, I’m sure.

But I wonder what would happen to the new Panterra, if it had a gear-up landing. The review in Flying says it’s a fiberglass low-wing with retractable gear. The gear is tricky, with something like ten doors, to minimize drag.
 
NoHeat said:
That aluminum plane will fly again, I’m sure.
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There is a tendency for insurance companies to total out these old retractables. By the time they are done with the repairs and the engine tear down for inspection, it is often not economical to repair. As noted above, may be a source of a carry through spar for someone.
 
Damage to Cardinals from gear-ups is usually pretty minor. Odds are that this will fly again.

gary
 
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