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Trainee pilot lands plane without wheel

Probably a Commercial Student, to still be a trainee at 120 hours, but be able to pull off a landing like that :D

He walked away so did ok.

EDHS, Germany

Nice landing under the circumstances. I would have been proud of that, if that was me.

Purely just wishing to learn from seeing that clip, could he have done anything else? I wonder if he steered left on purpose, to stop the right wingtip hitting the ground for as long as possible. He did well not just to save himself from any obvious injury, but assuming he wants to fly again, he might have prevented the plane from beign a write-off.

I did consider if it would be prudent to shut down the engine, and turn the prop by key until it was horizontal before making a glide approach, this would have ensured the engine was safe...

But I came to the conclusion that I think I would only have done that if it was the nose wheel that had fallen off, as that would make prop strike a certainty and risk of flip over. With it being the main wheel, then with no engine there would be no chance of go-around and you would be committed.

EDHS, Germany

Presumably they wanted to keep power so that they could keep the touch down as smooth as possible.

Having said that there was probably scope for pulling the mixture once the one main wheel touched down. I doubt that there would have been time or reason to try and centre the prob with the starter motor. That would be too much of a distraction.

EIWT Weston, Ireland

The problem with trying to be too clever is that you only have to touch the prop on the ground (hard or soft) and it's a mandatory shock load inspection.

And if I was a renter (as he prob99 was) and one of the wheels just fell off (wheels aren't supposed to just fall off) the absolutely last thing I would care for is preserving the plane, because I would simply assume that the last engineer working on it was one of these

and one deserves a bit better for the £200/hr or so.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Wonder how he knew a wheel had fallen off? Must have been alerted by someone. I guess it happened on t/o if the commentary 'burned off fuel for 4 hours' is to be believed. 4 hours is about the max you get out of a standard PA28.

It happened to a PA28 that used to belong to the club I'm in now, before I joined.

ATC reported to the pilot that something fell off on take off, and a fly by confirmed that it was the wheel.

I believe that there was a SB issued following that incident.

EIWT Weston, Ireland

Obviously a great result but I am not sure he did anything that astounding. He held the strut off for a while (I thought it could prob have been held off longer TBH), and didn't roll but it seemed quite a straightforward landing TBH. I would certainly have killed the engine on short final and tried to slow the aircraft more before the touchdown in ground effect. He did remember to open the door though.

EGTK Oxford

He did remember to open the door though.

although I notice the landing light on....so FISH check not completed... AQ

YPJT, United Arab Emirates

I read he circled (not literally I dont suppose) for 4 hours or so to burn off fuel. Do you think that was just to help prevent a fire upon landing, or do you think there were other reasons?

I can understand burning most of the fuel in the tank without the wheel underneath to reduce extra weight on that side, but it would seem to be that 4 - 5 hours is a long time in a PA28 (especially in the +40 C heats mentioned), it must be quite tormenting knowing yorur wheels missing. I think I'd rather take my chances and come down as soon as possible.

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