YQM gear-up

MFCGaBe · Post by **MFCGaBe** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 10:52 am

our Seminole just had a gear up landing...still unclear on the details..but witnessed it first hand and its quite an experience i dont want to see ever again

KAG · Post by **KAG** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 11:12 am

please say it wasn't GQQQ?!?!

Love that machine.

C-GPFG · Post by **C-GPFG** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 11:12 am

Happened to one of my former company's Seminoles last year. Did the pilot only use 10 degrees of flaps? Do the props look like curly fries?

MFCGaBe · Post by **MFCGaBe** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 11:48 am

1- no it wasnt QQQ...it was GMFC( the old one)
2 and as for flaps i think i heard on the radion he was going to use two notchs..wich i presume is 20?

RVR6000 · Post by **RVR6000** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 12:21 pm

Did they manage to feather the props prior to touchdown.

C-GPFG · Post by **C-GPFG** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 12:58 pm

MFCGaBe wrote:...and as for flaps i think i heard on the radion he was going to use two notchs..wich i presume is 20?

Yes, 2nd notch is 25. So it was a mechanical issue with the gear?

10 degrees bent the inboard section of flaps on the Seminole I saw gear up. Was it a short runway?

MFCGaBe · Post by **MFCGaBe** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 1:03 pm

yes i believe they feathered the props before the flare
and it was runway 24 in QM which is 6000' if i remember right

ZARCON · Post by **ZARCON** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 1:26 pm

Wasn't MFC the newer plane, 10 years ago I flew QQQ and NPE?

MFCGaBe · Post by **MFCGaBe** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 1:29 pm

to my knowledge MFC is the oldest of the 3 seminoles we have

RVR6000 · Post by **RVR6000** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 1:50 pm

QQQ has more time on it, but MFC has been with the college longer.

LiL'Cracky · Post by **LiL'Cracky** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 4:10 pm

not true, QQQ is the oldest. I was at the school when they bought MFC, just after they retired NPE.

C-FCFL · Post by **C-FCFL** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 8:21 pm

C-GPFG wrote:Happened to one of my former company's Seminoles last year. Did the pilot only use 10 degrees of flaps? Do the props look like curly fries?

mmm...curly fries! Spiced?

MFCGaBe · Post by **MFCGaBe** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 1:47 pm

yeah the right prop was curled up but the left one seemed intact...i saw it from 25 feet away so maybe thats why...ill try to get a pic soon

CD · Post by CD » Tue Jun 26, 2007 2:08 pm

Plane makes safe belly landing; Aircraft damaged but instructor, student uninjured in emergency landing after landing gear fails to come down

TIMES & TRANSCRIPT (MONCTON)
06/26/2007

A student at the Moncton Flight College learned quite a lesson during a training session yesterday morning. It just wasn't the one he signed up for.

The student, whose name was not released, and flying instructor Matt Girouard took off for training at 10:30 a.m.

At 11:30 a.m. they realized that the main right-hand landing gear was stuck and would not come down.

"It's pretty unusual for that to happen," said Mike Doiron, principal and chief executive officer of the flight college. "Usually the emergency gear comes down and backs it up, but for some reason that didn't happen this time."

After attempting every possible manoeuvre to release the landing gear, Girouard and his student were instructed to land the twin engine, Piper Seminole on its belly, without using any landing gear. The two, along with a military aircraft that was in the area, flew around for 3 hours preparing and making more attempts to release the gear, but in the end skidded onto the runway in a 'textbook' belly landing.

"No landing gear gives the pilot a much better angle," said Doiron. "The plane is more level and it cuts down on damage. It's basically a glorified bobsled."

Neither the student nor Girouard were injured during the landing.

"(Incidents like this) concerns us, as much as we take it seriously, but there is only damage to the aircraft," Doiron told media. "No human injuries. This kind of incident is similar to having a really bad flat tire."

Girouard said he wasn't even that nervous during the flight, he was just concentrating on getting down safely.

"I was just happy we were fine," he said after getting out of the airplane and being cleared by paramedics. "I felt a little shaky (after getting out) but if you get too stressed, you might make the situation worse than it is."

Girouard said he and his student just rehearsed repeatedly the landing procedure they were going to take. The plane had five hours worth of fuel and made several low flying runs to test out the runways before finally making as smooth a landing as possible on no wheels.

"It was fine," says Girouard. "It went pretty smooth."

Doiron, however, called it a text-book landing for that kind of procedure.

The belly of the plane was scratched on the pavement and the propellers were bent, but Girouard said he didn't take much time to consider damage to the aircraft. Once again, he said he was just happy that nobody was injured.

The student has been enrolled at the college for about eight months and Girouard says he has been flying since 2003. He and Doiron said that, even though this has never happened at the college before, the instructor's experience is responsible for the safe landing.

"It's nothing the instructor hasn't seen before," said Doiron. "The instructor would be in charge in this situation."

Girouard said the student handled the situation very well, and they even had time for jokes while they were burning fuel.

"The student was a little nervous near the end, but we had a few laughs and some jokes," Girouard said. "He was pretty calm, as well."

Snagmaster E · Post by **Snagmaster E** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 5:13 pm

Hey Gabe,

That never happened to us in YZX, did it?

(hope to God it's you)

S to the Nizza, A to the Gizzo

MFCGaBe · Post by **MFCGaBe** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 6:12 pm

yeah this is Gabe...haha we had fixed gear in ZX i hope no one belly-landed a 172 lol

invertedattitude · Post by **invertedattitude** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 4:36 am

I happened to be getting to the airport to talk to some of my old co-workers right as I seen the Herc pulling into a 60 degree bank to pull in behind the Seminole.

Watched them bring the Seminole in, and I gotta say was well done.

Glad to hear and see everyone walking out.

MFCGaBe · Post by **MFCGaBe** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 8:40 pm

i take back my words....both props looked like curly fries