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Go around after contacting pavement with gear up?

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The reason I asked, the guy who gave me my first few flying books and such and set me on my way (so to speak) had a VariEze. He managed to kill himself with it before he could take me up for a ride, though.

It involved a very wierd coincidence; He had a bunch of magazines (I forget which one, I want to say it was some EAA magazine) that had really glossy covers, and I had to be really careful not to get fingerprints in them. He loaned me a stack of them to read while I was with my family for summer vacation. One of the issues featured a very nice Long-EZ. On the last day of vacation, on the way home, we had a sudden stop and I almost dropped the issue in question. When I grabbed it, I planted a big white thumbprint right on the airplane. I felt rotten and had no idea how I was going to explain it to him. I had even kept the magazines in a wooden box I had with me to prevent anything from happening to them. When we got home, I learned that the previous day he had crashed his airplane and died. The time of the crash and the time of the thumbprint coincided by a matter of minutes.

I ended up returning the magazines to his house a few days later, but nobody was home, and I don't think they wanted to see me anyway. I left them on the counter and disappeared.

Every once in awhile I get the urge to call them and ask whatever became of the wreck, but I don't.
 
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dseagrav said:
The reason I asked, the guy who gave me my first few flying books and such and set me on my way (so to speak) had a VariEze. He managed to kill himself with it before he could take me up for a ride, though.

It involved a very wierd coincidence; He had a bunch of magazines...
No disrespect to your lost friend, but I got a whole corrugated box full of Soldier of Fortune magazines out in the garage...remind me not to borrow them to you.
 
Once upon a time.................

There was an instructor (E.C.) at the former ATA (Airline Training Academy) at Orlando Executive Airport who knew everything and argued with all about everything. We (Chief Instructors) tried for a while to find a reason to can him, and he finally gave it to us.

On a dark, clear, Saturday night, he was in the pattern practicing night landings on rwy 07 with his student in an Aztec. During one approach, they forgot to lower the gear. As the props hit the pavement, the instructor initiated a go-around. They made left closed traffic, passed over the Fashion Square Mall (which was highly populated on Saturday nights with kids, parents, and such), turned left base over downtown Orlando (near the Sun Trust building, right on top of the then popular Church Street Station), and landed "without incident" in his words. They taxied the aircraft back to the ramp area, and parked the Aztec in it's appropriate spot like nothing happened.

As daylight came and the next business day began, it was enlightening. Both props had both tips bent backwards 90 degrees for at least the first 6 to 8 inches. The step on the right side was still there, but snapped out of it's mount so it freely swung back and forth. The ADF antenna (dome) was gone, the DME antenna, as well as the tail tie-down mount. Both engine cowlings had scrapes on the bottom.

He stated to us that he NEVER touched the ground, except for the props, and one of his "buddies" (F.G-P.) at the school also argued with us of the same, even though the "buddy" wasn't even at the school when it happened. He felt that it was in his best interest to go around and save the aircraft. He stated that the aircraft handled "perfectly normal", and had no clue that he even hit the pavement with the props (this was said even after we started up the engines and the whole aircraft wanted to shake itself apart). He never once thought about the highly populated areas of the Home Depot on the upwind, the intersection of Colonial Drive and State Hwy 436, the Mall, Church Street Station and all of the downtown bars, the neighborhood on final, etc. After that statement and the ensuing arguments, we finally had the correct opportunity to rid ourselves of him. The firing had nothing to do with the gear-up; it had all to do with the decision making process that he's lucky didn't totally fail on him (i.e. slamming into a mall on a Saturday night with upwards of 1,000 people in it, etc.), and the ensuing arguments. There were other gear-ups there; in fact, it seemed like the plague for a while. Two of the other gear-ups kept their jobs, simply because of admitted guilt and correct decision making.

Long story short, pull the mixture(s) and plant the thing on the ground. You already screwed up the engines by prop-striking them. They now HAVE to be overhauled or replaced, regardless. This latest accident is a prime example of what could happen. Luckily, in ORL, it didn't and numerous lives were spared.
 
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DustMaker said:
dseagrav - have you looked up the report on the accident - good chance to learn something

Yeah, and it doesn't say anything really enlightening; He lost directional control on short final, hit a tree. inverted, then slid into a fence. He was trapped under the airplane and suffocated. His son was in the rear seat, he lived with head injuries. He was a high-time pilot (ex-military, CFI/COMM, etc.) so I don't know if it was some mistake on his part or something wrong with the airplane. (The airplane had been out of service for some time due to hail damage.)

Here's a link to the NTSB report.

(Edited)

FN FAL: The others were spotless. I should have also mentioned this was the only one I ever put a mark in.

 
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Long Time Gone said:
The firing had nothing to do with the gear-up; it had all to do with the decision making process

this is the mantra - make good decisions. three things that kill pilots

knowingly flying from good weather into bad weather
fuel starvation
hot dog flying, hello chimney


not bad engine or engines, not bad landings or bad takeoffs, but BAD decisions

same every year
 

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