Emergency landing at Ohakea today

[Dave Homewood]

An RNZAF King Air has made an emergency landing at Ohakea today.
www.stuff.co.nz/4015225a11.html

Air force plane makes emergency landing
NZPA | Tuesday, 3 April 2007

An air force pilot trainee was given a dramatic lesson in emergency landing today after a fault occurred in a plane's landing gear.


The trainee, with an air force flying instructor, had been carrying out routine take-off and landing training at Ohakea Air Force Base as part of the student's RNZAF wings course when the fault was identified.

Ambulance and fire units were put on standby about 1pm as the air force King Air trainer circled the Manawatu base trying to use up about an hour's supply of fuel while attempting to fix the wheels.

If the problem continued, the plane would have had to make a belly landing.

An air force spokesman said the instructor made a "textbook" emergency landing about 1.35pm.

The instructor had to land on the main wheels without a fully deployed nose-wheel landing gear.

[Dave Homewood]

Well done to the instructor. Was the aircraft badly damaged? Anyone got photos?

[Dave Homewood]

TV3 news just showed some excellent footage of the landing, with no nose wheel. It was perfectly executed. And it looks like very little damage will have been done.

[phil]

Most of the base turned out to watch, and a big round of applause went up from the crowd as the aircraft came to a stop.

[beagle]

any more news on this accident phil.
Did not see the news so not up on the play here.
Did the nose wheel work or was it a nose scrapping.
a few weeks in the hangar then back flying again ?

[phil]

I haven't heard any more about it, it looked like the nose was certainly scraping on the ground. At least a few weeks in the hangar, the props hit the ground so the engines will need quite a bit of work as well as repairs to the nose structure. I think there was relatively little damage though.

[Glen T]

I have heard some wispers... The King Air was '82. The fault was the nose wheel undercarriage screw locking actuator. The internal female thread had shredded, and therefore would not secure the lock for the nose wheel - up or down ... It is normally checked every 1,000 landings, this example was around the 600 mark or so.... all RNZAF a/c will now be checked every 100 landings ... manufacturer reakons 1,000 is adequate! .. it can only be checked with u/c partly up (or down!) not fully up (or down). The other four aircraft were checked and no faults were found. Damage seemed to be limited to the nose u/c doors, and the underside of the nose ... Fortunately it contacted the ground 'gently'.. pilot did not brake which would have slammed it down! The forward bulkhead had some material shaved off, therefore a manufacturers accepted repair will be done to that part of the frame. Front part of the engines will have to be sent away for checking, while at least four out of 8 props will need to be replaced. It will be out of action tho for some time ..apparently though it was the best a/c out of the 5 for serviceability, etc !!
Interestingly, when the a/c was flying around trying to establish the fault, two airtrainers flew around/beneath it - one to look, the other to guide the other trainer ... they could see that it was not locked and it being so close as if they could just reach up and lock it into place!!! But the overlatch may have done that, but it was not locked and could have collapsed anyway on landing!! before landing, not knowing who/what caused the fault some Macchis were moved so that the KingAir would be put in a different hangar to Airmotive in prep for an investigation.. being 'civvy' aircraft, Airmotive were not obliged to freeze the records like the AF does, but when it was confirmed it was a mechanical fault (not person or company!), the a/c was taken into 42 Sqn (old 14sqn) hangar for inspection and repair. There will be no Court of Inquiry by the AF, but an investigation team of Officers has been set up to report on the incident. A second a/c is a hangar queen at the moment, so there is only 3 available for the present!
The 'contract' for supplying the King Airs to the AF comes up for renewal next year, and there is 'talk' about that the AF wants to buy 5 brand new a/c and manage them themselves... since all 5 being used at the moment are all quite different to each other. The RAF purchased up to 8 (??) off the production line some time ago and RNZAF pilots that have spent time there say that to have all aircraft the same for training is just awesome!!! Will be interesting therefore where the manpower and experience on type would come from should RNZAF take them on ??!!

[flyjoe180]

Well, it makes sense to have the multi-engine training fleet in the same configuration. The RAAF leases 7 King Airs, they elected for the -350 series. The RAF have B200's. Experience from either of these air forces could help the RNZAF to establish the support it needs for new King Airs.

[Calum]

It certainly makes sense to try and have your entire fleet in one configuration.

Having 2 or more different configurations is something I deal with everyday looking after the RAN's AS350BA fleet.

We have 2 different sub variants of the AS350BA. The radios and nav systems are pretty much completely different. Not only does this stuff us around bout it means that only certain aircraft can perform certain flights.

It's a right royal Pain in the A#$e at times. It doesn't help with the aircraft OEM has no idea what they sold you either

[Glen T]

[Dave Homewood]

Like everything, you can now see the landing on YouTube

[phil]

Weird sounding voice over.

Stephen Hawking's sister perhaps?

[Dave Homewood]

Or Connie Chung :-)

[flyjoe180]

This is a better view: