Gear Up Touch and Go - Piper Aerostar Video

[Radiohead]

Here's the news story about it from a local station including interview with the guy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgdSflSCTQM

[Canoehead]

Last time I checked, having the gear down will help with that "airspeed that's too fast to land".

At the very least it will make the landing smoother.

I feel for the fella, but it seems this could be a situation like it is with some drivers. They need to hang up the keys at some point, preferably before the damage is done.

[MrWings]

Q: "What was going through your mind?"

A: "I gotta get the hell out of here!"


Shouldn't his thought have been "what kind of damage did I do"? "Better keep it on the ground and check things out."

The decision to fly away like that is ridiculous. Very luck to make it back home.

[iflyforpie]

That's his story and he's sticking to it.

I think he was trying to say he wanted to do a go around... but I think everyone here knows that was no failed go-around attempt. Power didn't come up from idle until it had scraped a couple hundred feet, the aircraft flared perfectly for a landing, and for an Aerostar that was able to power out of that with bad props... it wasn't a long or fast approach. Plus.. power first, then gear and flaps.. not the other way around.

[lownslow]

Q: "What was going through your mind?"

A: "I gotta get the hell out of here!"

Flawed though it may be, I can sort of see the logic in it. It's a case of, "The runway is damaging my plane, I better get away from the runway. Unfortunately, it worked. The runway never kept it down. The pilot here makes an aggressive vertical move and defeats it with altitude.

The encounter was a victory, but we show it as an example of what not to do.