Where to land in an RG failure ?

EdFred

Taxi to Parking
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White Chocolate
After reading Toby's instructor's (can you use consecutive possessives and have it be proper english?) scenario, and a couple of others I got to thinking: What would be the best place to put down so as to close as little at the airport as possible. I don't have complex yet, but there will come a day when I do. I'm thinking about the airport that I would land and instead of my home field.
KGRR - http://www.naco.faa.gov/content/naco/online/airportdiagrams/05184AD.PDF

I know it's better to do a gear up landing on concrete, and at this field I'll get put down on 26R/8L so as to keep the big runways open. But lets say 26R/8L doesn't exist or is torn up for resurfacing or what about at a field such as KCRW:
http://www.naco.faa.gov/content/naco/online/airportdiagrams/00852AD.PDF

Now there isn't secondary runway for prevailing winds and you're going to shut down the airport if you put it down on the main runway. Would you request a taxiway gear up landing? I know that in an emergency I get priority, but sliding it is sliding it. Most/all taxiways at the C fields are wider than the 2 runways I learned to fly at. I would think that a landing on taxiway A or C at CRW or A, F, J at GRR would be something I might request just to cause as little inconvenience as possible for the rest of the traffic coming in or out of the place.

What are your thoughts on "being nice" in a situation like that and asking for a taxiway landing in a small GA plane?
 
Don't be nice. Human survival is much, much more important than being nice.
 
I would not try to be nice. Use the runway which gives you the best chance for walking away in one piece. Into wind, widest, longest etc.
My one and only nosegear failure in a Beech Duchess closed Queenstown airport in New Zealand for over two hours. I had the option of taking the grass runway but for my own safety, and that of my passengers chose to use the main runway. I did fly around for 20 minutes or so to let them land a 737 that was coming in right behind me, but everyone after that had to divert.
Your safety is much more important than a few inconvenienced passengers.
Stephen.
 
Go walk down a taxiway sometime. You might be surprised what's there.
Taxiways (including the harmless looking ones) are often relatively narrow and will way too often have hostile things nearby like drainage ditches, weather and IFR boxes, lawn mowers, steel pipes and/or concrete blocks sticking out of the ground, unlevel surfaces, etc. Runways OTOH are often flat and wider with a clear area between the edge and hostile objects because designers often plan on someone running off in the weeds one day. You will have no steering for all practical purposes, or worse yet, one main down and the other questionably down (read as: up) resulting in uncommanded steering as a default. Do you really want to stick your wingtip in the wet dirt at 45kts then go nose first into a ditch?

If you crash on or off the airport, the tower is extremely likely to close the entire airport down anyway until the mess is cleaned up regardless of the number of runways available. Seen that more than once.

This is about survival, _not_ touchy feely politically correct polite nice stuff. Your life is your only concern. Find the biggest flattest least hostile surface you can, preferably with emergency services standing by, and let everyone else fend for themselves. If they don't like it, they can go somewhere else.

P.S. If it makes you feel any better: I can't speak for everyone but if you're blocking my runway after 3.5 hours in the air and I gotta go potty real bad, I'll happily divert elsewhere and I won't even be irritated with you in the least.
 
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I certaily agree with all above, but also, if you have a choice, land where the plane will be reasonably cared for after the gear up. As I said, we had a club plane (177RG) land here at Addison that had substantial additional damage done by the salvage guys. There is a proper way to get a damaged plane off the runway.

I sure wouldn't pick my home field over a better airport, but if you can land at a good field and have a salvage crew there that knows what they're doing, it can save a lot of time and unnecessary cost to repair. Of course, this isn't the first priority, but if it's an option, it's worth considering.

Best,

Dave
A-36TN ADS
 
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