Emergency Training Pays Off

This site is “Ask a CFI” not “Thank a CFI...” but I want to thank, then I’ll ask.

When I teach aerobatics I start with recovering safely from what can go wrong. Because things do go wrong. Along the way I’ve had instructors teach me to fly new maneuvers, new airplanes, etc. Most of them have been conscientious and taught the emergencies along with maneuvers.

Last night I was doing the “long cross country” for 61.129 in a Piper Seminole. I attempted to lower the gear at my destination 256NM from home base. No drag. No noise. No nose gear in the mirror. But I did hear “pop!”

I have about ten hours in Seminoles out of about 50 hours total ME time. I got checked out in the turbo Seminole earlier this month. This was my second flight in that airplane. I was glad for a good intro to the ADS-B and the heater! (It was cold!)

The “pop” turned out to be the landing gear circuit breaker. I reset and retried. No luck. In discussion with the tower I orbited briefly and then made a decision. Considering ADM, the weather was excellent, I had about three hours of fuel for a 90-minute flight, and would be flying into the setting sun with a landing after dark. Home base is an uncontrolled field with a well-equipped controlled field about 30 miles short of home.

Considerations included manual extension, landing, and flying back with the gear down. Or arranging for maintenance on someone else’s airplane. Getting back home. Etc. If I had had any doubts about fuel and weather I would have dropped the gear and landed. As I felt it was quite safe to head back, I did so.

I was pretty confident about how to manually extend the gear, but had never done so. It’s tough to read the POH with the setting sun directly on the nose. Maybe it’s tough to fly and read the POH with the setting sun.

I’m flying into the sun. I have a plan. I know how to fly. I’m trained for this. Right? Fuel should be fine. But the left gauge is going down much faster than the right. Interesting. Every little rumble in an engine feels like eminent fuel starvation.

By the time I’m handed off to the controller on the last bit of my trip I have a plan. About 30 miles out from home base I cross the extended approach centerline of our local controlled field – about 15 miles south. I’ll manually extend the gear at that point. If it comes down I’ll fly the last 30 miles with the gear down and land. If the gear does not extend I’ll turn left and land at the controlled field.

(The Seminole seems to do better with a bit of power into the flair. I wondered about flying final/flair in the dark w/o the landing gear drag, and considering shutting down the engines just before touchdown. All of that would have been quite different from a normal landing.)

Just before the intercept I slow down. Pull the gear pump circuit breaker. Gear down. Flip the wire cover off the manual extension knob and pull it. It comes much further than I would have guessed. I hear things and the airplane yaws. Green. Green. Dark. The left gear is not green. I’m not interested in aerobatics in the dark, but I yank and bank some to no avail. I switch two lights hoping maybe a bulb is out. Nope. Switch them back. Seemed like forever, but “thunk” and three green.

I notified Approach that all was OK and flew on to land. A great landing actually. I took longer than Approach expected to phone them on the ground, so fire and ambulance showed up. But the thought was nice.

I was pleased to see how super supportive the ATC system was and to see validation for the training we do. Since I didn’t land, the flight doesn’t count for the 61.129 cross country, so I have 4.3 hours of local flying.

Credit goes to the instructors I have had who taught ADM, safety/emergency procedures, and confidence. I was never unduly worried.

How do you teach emergencies such as this when you can’t reasonably manually lower the gear for practice?

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