Pilot, wife use iPads to safely crash-land without landing gear

comanche pilot said:
Copied from another forum I follow.

"This plane just came out of an annual before being bought by one of the pilots on board. When they went to pick it up on Friday they were informed "Oh by the way, the person doing the emergency extension let the gear fall and they had to remove some panels to get it hooked up again". RED FLAG. They were asked, did you check it afterward? Answer, "UH, YA". Probably did not.
After departure they did not get a gear up light and the gear motor appeared to keep running and the breaker blew and would not stay reset. We don't know if this led to the demise of the charging system or not. As they went on the battery voltage continued to go down. Finally they had no lights, comm or nav. Very challenging at 11k and pitch black every where. As they got near Rapid City they tried to put the gear down manually. They followed the procedure to a T. It would only go down part way, they thought they were going to break the lever off.
I do know the instructor/Pilot who was on board. In fact I had gone over the emergency procedure with him before they went to pick up the plane. We are friends. When he got back yesterday he came over and explained what he did. We sat in my plane and verified he did all the correct steps.
My best guess is that the spring that is attached to the gear motor and the cockpit floor was missing or not attached. That might explain the shops initial problem and why they could only get partial extension. He took a picture of my spring attachment and is trying to get a picture of the one in Rapid City to verify if that was the problem."

If indeed that spring was missing, it would allow the gear transmission to drop down and bind up the jack screw not allowing full extension. This little spring has offten been found missing or not reattached after maintenace was performed.

I am surprised they would continue a flight just out of maintenance, with an obvious issue.
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Right there makes me think, WTF? Sorry, if it just came out of maintenance and the gear didn't come up properly, it would have went right back down and back to the shop.
 
dans2992 said:
Where the heck is the "off" position? I own a Comanche and my gear switch is either "up" or "down". Is the "off" position only on some models?
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My 1960 Comanche has the three position switch. Up is gear up. Down is gear down. It's necessary to pull the switch out to pass the neutral or off detent when lowering the gear. I thought all the early Comanches had this style switch until the switch with the round knob came out in later years.

Here's a video of a pilot who puts the switch in the off position both after take off and once he puts the gear down for landing. That's not standard operating procedure. My owners handbook states to put the switch in the off position only after the gear is raised or for emergency extension.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RtzaJi3LfmE
 
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Ok, I have a '67 with the round handle. Maybe that's after it was changed...?


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Z06_Mir said:
I am told the guy had purchased the airplane within a couple of days. I'm also told that he thought the gear was down from the emergency release but couldn't confirm it locked because no lights or horn. I think a pre-buy mechanic may have some 'splanin' to do. It was a nice Commanche it looks like.

I should have more info later today.
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It was reported on the Airworthy Comanche forum on Delphi that the purchasers decided that a fresh annual made a pre-buy inspection unnecessary and not worth the cost. They were probably correct if they were just going to get another A&P of the same caliber of the guys that did the annual and reportedly let the gear free-fall to slam against the stops on the emergency extension check on the annual, which can easily damage the system. If they had gotten a pre-purchase inspection by someone who actually knows the landing gear system, the accident likely would not have happened.
 
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