Gulfstream Emergency

[Spyguy]

Anyone hear about what is going on with the Gulfstream V that is having some sort of landing gear malfunction today?

 

[clickclickboom]

yep just landed

still cant figure one thing out why in the world cant people land on the damn centerline of the runway?

 

[ProFracPilot]

still cant figure one thing out why in the world cant people land on the dang centerline of the runway?

I usually have a pat answer for this: There are only two reasons that one does not land on the centerline of the runway, either the airplane is out of control, or the pilot is just lazy. In this instance the airplane was not out of control and I doubt that this guy was being lazy. He probably was allowing for the very real possibility of gear collapse.

 

[clickclickboom]

in that case he sould have set her down as far to the left as possible

I can honestly say that in flying with hundreds of captains and first officers that the ones that consistently land off centerline are generally poor pilots..

The sad thing is that just last week i was flying with a guy in the hawker all week he was at least 1 and sometime both wheels left of centerline.

we were going into sjc and he greased one on. he turned to me through 80 kts and said how did you like that one.. i still dont think the plane in on the ground yet!! I give it a 10! I said yes it was great maybe you should land on the taxiway next time.. He said what ?

I said yes all 6 tires were completely nearly 10 feet left of centerline..

he looked at me like I had just kicked his dog..

 

[Conchflyr]

If you want to watch a video of his 6 hour "holding", check this out...

http://flightaware.com/live/special/N225GV/N225GV_movie.rvt

FlightAware is an awesome new FREE service.

 

[Sparse]

still cant figure one thing out why in the world cant people land on the dang centerline of the runway?

Maybe I dreamed this but somewhere in my miltary training, many years ago, I was told that it was not bad form to favor the upwind side of a runway. It seems to me that if you have an emergency, a 150 foot wide runway, a gear problem and a crosswind, that this practice is not unacceptable. I guess there are always going to be those that view the glass half full and those that see it as half empty.

 

[Lord Wakefield]

Boy the media really milked this story for all that it was worth! Hours of reporting when the sum total of their knowledge could have been conveyed in a couple of minutes. Switching back an forth between FOX and CNN here were some of the highlights

1) how many passengers can fit in a Lear Jet (course they're all Lears, right?)
2) Martha MacCallum "now of course, the worst thing that could happen is a tail spin."
3) Then, there was the confusing file photos of the plane in question. Showing a GIV occassionally was forgivable, but a Swiss Registered Falcon 2000????
4) Oh yeah, there are separate hydraulic switches for the right and left wheels.
5) The expert: "I haven't flown any of these corporate jets but I've got a lot of experience in WWII propeller jobs"


I know this type of thing captivates the minds of non-pilots because it's easy to relate to. But as far as emergencies go, this only posed the possibility of some costly repairs and a closed runway. Any fractional pilot who has had to go missed at a mountainous airport or taken a buzzard through the windscreen has experienced more stress than these guys, on that day.

 

[Sparse]

news media

The news media never ceases to amaise me. Years ago (28 to be exact) as a new hire on reserve in ATL, I watched the all day coverage of a Frontier 737, highjacked from DEN to ATL, by this gay guy, because his lover, now living in ATL had left him. I guess he wanted to go on a honeymoon to Key West. During the day the question arose as to how they were able to power the airplane with the engines not running. A note was passed to the reporter that the aircraft was running it's APU. For the next 30 minutes the reporters refferred to the power source as the Apoo (phonetically pronounced A pooooo). Finally I guess someone just couldn't stand it anymore and telephoned in a correction. Since then I have always referred to the APU as the Apooo.