Plane Damaged After Rough Landing
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BY TOM EMBREY
Senior Writer
A single-engine plane was damaged when it landed at the Moore County Airport with its landing gear up this weekend, the airport manager said.
Steve Borden said no one was injured in the incident, which happened around 1:45 p.m. Saturday.
"It hurts the pride, and it hurts the pocketbook," Borden said of the incident, "but in the end, everybody was OK, and that's a good thing."
The plane was damaged, and a crane had to be brought in to remove it from the ground, Borden said.
The pilot, a local resident, was the only person on board the plane.
The incident was reported to the Federal Aviation Administration for further investigation, Borden said.
Contact Tom Embrey at (910) 693-2484 or tembrey @thepilot.com.
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Comments
fugitiveguy 5 months, 2 weeks ago
I am very glad no one was injured. This happened to a friend of mine once, his name was Ted Stryker.
teufelhunden 5 months, 2 weeks ago
Ted Striker: Surely you can't be serious. Rumack: I am serious... and don't call me Shirley.
FightFireWithFire 5 months, 2 weeks ago
I am glad this had a good outcome.
dustyrhoades 5 months, 2 weeks ago
"Good Landing - One you can walk away from.
Excellent Landing - One you can walk away from, and use the same airplane within 24 hours after landing."
fugitiveguy 5 months, 2 weeks ago
Learning to fly and playing the piano are two things I will do if I am re-incarnated. Not at the same time, though.
Thatcher 5 months, 2 weeks ago
fugitiveguy-- Too funny! Ted Striker...about spit out my sweet tea! Cheers!
OldPilot 5 months, 2 weeks ago
It happens to the best of us, ie: those who actually own and fly our airplanes, as opposed to the dodos of this world who do neither but "manage" things. When it happens lift the airplane, drop the gear, tow it away, fix the airplane. No need to involve the FAA because, except at the Moore County Air Farce Base, it's an insurance/financial issue, not a tattletale regulatory issue.
fugitiveguy 5 months, 2 weeks ago
OP, how often do you have to prove your fitness to fly?
Matt_Woodruff 5 months, 2 weeks ago
Fugitiveguy, every two years. Old pilot, I wouldn't categorize someone who had a gear up landing as "the best of us" :)
dustyrhoades 5 months, 2 weeks ago
OP: doesn't someone have to notify the NTSB?
skylinefirepest 5 months, 2 weeks ago
OP, we used to say there are three things that are no good to a pilot...the air above us, the runway behind us, and the gas we left on the ground. One good thing about a multi-engine though, If you lose one engine the other one will fly you all the way to the crash site.
OldPilot 5 months, 2 weeks ago
fugitiveguy: "Fitness to fly" would be a medical issue, not a skill issue. There are three classes of FAA medicals, First, Second and third. First class is good for six months to exercise the privileges of an Airline Transport Pilots certificate in an FAR part 121 (airline) position. Second class is good for one year to exercise the privileges of a commercial pilot, part 135 charter, part 91 flight instruction, air application etc. Third class is good for three years if issued below age 40 and two years if above age 40. Pilots have to peform a "flight review" every two years if they have not been issued a certificate in the prior two years, this can take place during recurrent training if one is flying for an airline or charter/fractional, otherwise most non-professional pilots fly with a certificated flight instructor every two years. The flight instructor can not "fail" the pilot but can refuse to sign off the flight review as being successfully completed thus the pilot cannot fly as pilot in command of an aircraft until a flight review is successfully completed. Dusty Rhoades: 49 CFR 830, commonly called NTSB Rule 830 defines when a report must be submitted to the NTSB. There is no requirement that the FAA be notified. Rule 830 defines accidents, incidents, serious injury and so on. In an instance where only the aircraft receives certain limited and defined damage and there is no injury to other property, and no deaths or personal injury, no report is required to the NTSB. If a report is required it is to be filed on NTSB Form 6120.1 within ten days after the accident. The NTSB will frequently delegate investigation to the FAA when only minor property damage or minor personal injuries are involved. Matt Woodruff: every branch of the military has had gear up landings, I doubt there has ever been an airline that didn't have one or more. Old aviation joke: There are those who have, and those who will. It happens less frequently at controlled airports because the tower operators at civilian airports usually, but not always, notice if someone gets out of sequence with the airplane and is heading for a gear up. Military controllers always instruct an inbound to "check gear down". Don't have that luxury at uncontrolled airports such as Moore County.
dustyrhoades 5 months, 2 weeks ago
Interesting. Thanks, OP.
RmeMP 5 months, 2 weeks ago
OP:
I am not a pilot, and never have been - but as a simple curious individual who does fly often, what's wrong with notifying the FAA in case of accidents?
RmeMP 5 months, 2 weeks ago
Also, living in todays, "sue-happy" society, wouldn't it be safer to notify the FAA even if you don't "have to"? As a way to cover your you know what?
Spocks_Brain 5 months, 2 weeks ago
Yes twins rule, came back one night on one engine and a prayer, late at night....in my Piper Apache
plane was a ok!
Spocks_Brain 5 months, 2 weeks ago
why the )_(&()^(%&($ is DR anywhere near this article?
mymindwanders 5 months, 2 weeks ago
RmeMp- Don't you have some trees you need to get ready to cut down? Or do you just stir the pot on everything thread?
OldPilot 5 months, 2 weeks ago
RmeNP: this is just my personal opinion but here goes. As far as the airlines are concerned the FAA promulgates operational and maintenance rules but the airlines themselves have standardized procedures in both areas over and above the Federal Aviation Regulations (FARs) to the point there is virtually no room for individual judgment. The same is true for military aviation, rules for everything and no thinking required, although that said there is slightly more room for individual iniative among Navy, Marine & Coast Guard aviators than Air Force. Then we get to general aviation, which is everything except airline, military and "other" government. Years ago the FAA was populated by ex WW II and Korean War vets. They knew what was safe & made sense versus what was just useless rule making , useless paperwork. The sense then was make it safe, there being no necessity in the event of a minor incident such as a simple gear up to prosecute the hapless pilot/owner with a certificate action (violation) when a quite discussion and maybe some remedial training would suffice. These days to an increasing extent the FAA is populated by folks who have a degree in "aviation management". As long as the paperwork is perfect the airplane is perfect, although it may in fact be a flying deathtrap, the converse being a perfectly acceptable airplane and/or pilot is grounded because there is some minor glitch in the paperwork. Worse there is/are a raft of military retirees who have no experience in general aviation being hired into jobs managing airports, teaching ground courses (not flying) at schools and being otherwise involved in general aviation who try to cram general aviation into some military mold. In the military & the airlines (the military being the traditional source of pilots entering the airlines) everything is done for you: maintenance, dispatch, weather analysis, loading, flight planning, where and when to fly, nothing left to chance, little thinking required. In general aviation the pilot/owner does all that for him or herself. There is no safety or operational benefit to some busybody impressed with his or her own sense of self importance unnecessarily reporting a simple gear up to the FAA: the report isn't required, the FAA doesn't need the additional work, it contributes nothing to safety (every pilot understands it a bad thing to land gear up and knows how to avoid it, but stuff occasionally happens), the report does nothing with respect to any legal/liability issues (in fact NTSB reports are not admissable in civil litigation) and all it does is make the now somewhat poorer pilots life more miserable. Spocks_Brain: Dusty Rhoades asked an intelligent question, you didn't.
fugitiveguy 5 months, 2 weeks ago
To simply play the devils advocate, there is not enough information in the article to completely rule out a medical issue although I will admit it is very unlikely.
RmeMP 5 months, 2 weeks ago
@OP: thank you for being so informative on the issue; i now see your point
@mymindwonders: i wasn't stirring the pot on anything; try re-reading my posts here you troll! by the way, since you mentioned it, i have upped the number of trees im going to cut down from 3, to 5 - just for you :)
(since you're so concerned, that will happen tomorrow; and, i will let the trees know that they are being cut down in your name)
emb6683 5 months, 2 weeks ago
Even this B-1 bomber crew forgot to put the landing gear down a few years ago.
http://www.zianet.com/tedmorris/dg/bombers4.html
OldPilot 5 months, 2 weeks ago
fugitiveguy: I agree the article had little detail. It reported what happened, but not why it happened. A gear-up landing, as in this instance, is virtually always a matter of having done the same thing successfully thousands of times and becoming momentarily distracted/inattentive, as emb6683 pointed out it can and does happen to the best of us, and they don't come much better than B-1 drivers. Very, very occasionally it's a matter of inexperience, ineptitude or mechanical malfunction. If it's a mechanical an "M & D" report, malfunction & defect, is made to the FAA. Inexperience requires more training. Ineptitude, who knows, maybe a fixed gear airplane?