Fearless Tower
Touchdown! Greaser!
Okay, after over 300 hrs in retracts, this actually happened to me yesterday returning to San Diego from PHX in a Duchess. Everything worked out and resulted in a safe landing, but my natural instinct is to review my actions and try to see if there are any lessons to be learned, so I thought I'd post this here.
I was on the ILS 28R to MYF, had been handed over to Tower and approaching the FAF. I had selected gear down and called out my landing checklist:
"Landing Gear? Down and locked, three greens......wait WTF....only 2 Greens!"
No nose gear indication. First thought was that it was a burned out bulb. So I press to test and sure enough, the nose wheel light works fine, so there is definitely a problem. Damn. I continue on the ILS and attempt to recycle the gear - no joy, still no nose gear indication. Better tell Tower what's up.
Now I am on an IFR flight plan, but the weather in San Diego is clear, VMC. I explain to Tower my situation, request a low approach and ask the tower to take a look and tell me what they see. Because it was VMC, I decided that I would cancel IFR and told tower that I would stay in the pattern while re-assessing the situation. This is where I am thinking I may have made a bad decision, but I'll get to that later.
I cycle the gear one last time on short final and I finally get my three greens. I make a slow low pass down the runway and Tower confirms that all three wheels are down and I then fly a normal pattern and make a nice slow touchdown, hold the nose off just as much as possible and then gently set it down and exit the runway - no problems.
Now, while everything worked out, in retrospect, I am starting to think that my decision to cancel IFR and stay in the pattern was a mistake. Had I not been able to get the nose wheel light on that last attempt, I would have been trying to further troubleshoot the gear (emergency gear extension/zooming) while flying in the pattern, single pilot, in an airplane with no working autopilot. In retrospect, the best strategy might have been to fly the low approach and if I still couldn't get the gear indication, go missed and ask SoCal for a fix/block altitude away from traffic where I do further troubleshooting before attempting to land.
Any thoughts? Would anyone do something different?
I was on the ILS 28R to MYF, had been handed over to Tower and approaching the FAF. I had selected gear down and called out my landing checklist:
"Landing Gear? Down and locked, three greens......wait WTF....only 2 Greens!"
No nose gear indication. First thought was that it was a burned out bulb. So I press to test and sure enough, the nose wheel light works fine, so there is definitely a problem. Damn. I continue on the ILS and attempt to recycle the gear - no joy, still no nose gear indication. Better tell Tower what's up.
Now I am on an IFR flight plan, but the weather in San Diego is clear, VMC. I explain to Tower my situation, request a low approach and ask the tower to take a look and tell me what they see. Because it was VMC, I decided that I would cancel IFR and told tower that I would stay in the pattern while re-assessing the situation. This is where I am thinking I may have made a bad decision, but I'll get to that later.
I cycle the gear one last time on short final and I finally get my three greens. I make a slow low pass down the runway and Tower confirms that all three wheels are down and I then fly a normal pattern and make a nice slow touchdown, hold the nose off just as much as possible and then gently set it down and exit the runway - no problems.
Now, while everything worked out, in retrospect, I am starting to think that my decision to cancel IFR and stay in the pattern was a mistake. Had I not been able to get the nose wheel light on that last attempt, I would have been trying to further troubleshoot the gear (emergency gear extension/zooming) while flying in the pattern, single pilot, in an airplane with no working autopilot. In retrospect, the best strategy might have been to fly the low approach and if I still couldn't get the gear indication, go missed and ask SoCal for a fix/block altitude away from traffic where I do further troubleshooting before attempting to land.
Any thoughts? Would anyone do something different?