Gear up Landing

[RGlos]

This is about the most damage I've seen on a gear up landing

 

It is from our friend in the Honduras. Afif Saybee

 

He is open to suggestions or help

 

Saybe Engineering [saybeengineering@hughes.net]

[argoldman]

This is about the most damage I've seen on a gear up landing

 

It is from our friend in the Honduras. Afif Saybee

 

He is open to suggestions or help

 

Saybe Engineering [saybeengineering@hughes.net]

No Prob. that statement reminds me of a Steve Goodman song, "It aint hard to get along with somebody elses troubles"

 

Seriously, I am so sorry to see the damage.

 

A suggestion for your rhynoplsty-

 

What you need to do is fully expose all of the front gear box, or what's left of it. cut off the damaged parts, use similar foam to repair (recreate) the missing parts do this on your bench, including gluing togehter of the box form.

 

Adjust so that it fits the remaining parts.

 

Prepare the old part by thoroughly sanding the edges back about 3" from where the repair will be

 

5 min the new part to the repair area.

 

Glass outside and inside as per plans lapping onto the repair area at least 1 1/2" ( I would do at least 2-21/2")

 

Add one extra layer of Bid @45 over repair area extending at least 1 1/2" past.

 

I believe this is standard repair protocol.

 

After the gearbox is repaired, maintaining the original dimensions, you can replace the skin foam, glass as directed, overlapping prepared surfaces by 1 1/2" minimum with one extra layer of Bid at 45 over juncture.

 

If you want to, you can form your piece(s), remove them, glass the interiors (peel ply borders) when hard and trimmed, replace, tape edges, shape outside and glass as above.

 

Good luck. I'm glad you are OK.

[Jon Matcho]

He would do well to have the plans as they would detail what's going on in that area, along with the necessary dimensions. Looks like the nose retract system is fairly beat up, and may require replacing. All things considered, it's repairable, and a popular repair at that.

[saybeengineering]

Jon and Rich....Thank you very much for your time and knowledge. Regardless of the damage, i feel more comfortable after heering different perspectives of how to proceed. I also respect your mentorship given I'm a non-builder. The aircraft is 100 miles away from home. I'm hoping to trrailer it back this weekend, but removing the wings and accesories. Is there a procedure available for this particular purpose (generic or detail)???? Per your recommendation Jon, is it possible to have access to these plans for better reference.

 

Thanks in advance...

 

Afif Saybe

[saybeengineering]

If you received a previous replay, please disregard this one.

 

Thanks for you time and your knowledege. Being a non-builder, it scares you a bit of not knowing what to expect or HOW to proceed properly. However, with mentors and experience individuals as both of you, it allows me to focus more in detail on how to proceed with this new venture. The aircraft is about 100 miles away from home base and I'm hopefully trailering it back this weekend. I'm planning to remove the wings and accesories and I was wondering if there is a particular procedure (detail or Generic) to follow. Finally, is there a way to at least get the plans for building the nose section for the LongEZ.....???

 

Thanks,

Afif Saybe

[Kent Ashton]

This is about the most damage I've seen on a gear up landing

 

It is from our friend in the Honduras.

Yikes, he must have been smoking on touchdown. I landed my Cozy III nose gear up with two people in the front seat and it only ground away a patch the size of a pie-plate. This is major rhinoplasty.

--Kent

[Drew Swenson]

This is not going to help you repair it---and you have a lot of great advice already----with the best being to study the plans (nose section---and the repair section)----but for those who have not ground their noses yet----please fly your aircraft in the pattern with the nose down and feel and hear how the aircraft behaves (including how much power you are carrying)-----and then do the same with the gear up. I guarantee you that it IS different. Your airplane WILL talk to you----you just need to listen. You should have been saying to yourself on the approach to landing

-Gee--the airplane really does not want to come out of the sky...

-Why am I getting so high???

-Why am I having to dump the nose (and increase my landing speed) to make this landing?---I don't normally have to do this

-I usually hear a little more noise and feel a little more buffet---why is everything so smooth?

 

These are the kind of things you should be saying to yourself on an approach with the gear up. Now you know the answer. If you are not saying these things to yourself with the gear up, then you definately are not listening---and you should be worried.

 

I'm still in the have not done it category---and plan to never be----but it won't be because I was not listening. It could be because I chose to stop listening because I was distracted with some sort of emergency and was more focused on something else----but I won't get caught on a routine landing.

 

Now that I have said that...I got caught with my canopy unlatched (for the second time----once in my Long and now in my Cozy)---oops. Last weekend, rotated, canopy came up. Grabbed the handle before it hit the safety---wife was in back and also grabbed the canopy. She wanted me to land right away----I wanted to get away from the ground. It was no problem hanging onto it at slow speed. I was finally able to get it latched---actually it was kind of hard because not everything was lining up well.

 

I got distracted in the middle of closing the canopy---shame on me.

[RGlos]

This happened at the airport for the capital city of the Hounduras.

 

My guess is that after he landed he taxied off the primary runway ( or was told to) just to clear the runway. I checked itout on Google Earth and there is only one runway. If he sits there, the next plane could have been commercial.

 

Afif, is this close?

 

When I did mine I scrubbed of a patch only about 3x5 inches and the small aluminum plate on the strut.

 

Rick

[Jon Matcho]

I'm hoping to trrailer it back this weekend, but removing the wings and accesories. Is there a procedure available for this particular purpose (generic or detail)????

Someone just asked the same question with a fresh answer available here: http://www.canardzone.com/forum/showthread.php?p=12747

 

Per your recommendation Jon, is it possible to have access to these plans for better reference.

They're available on CD for $295 here: http://www.dragonaero.com/RAFCDROM.htm However, I have an extra CD that I'm going to put up for sale soon which you can have for $200 if you want. You can also download files for Long-EZ-compatible drawings here: http://www.canardzone.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1633

 

Thanks in advance...

You're welcome, and good luck!

[saybeengineering]

Thanks for comments.

 

Your are right, I should have listen to the whole scenario while approaching to land. I was looking forward to this flight. My first time landing the LOng EZ in Tegucigalpa, or Toncontin airport. This is considered the third most dangerous airport in Latin America because of the challeging approach and mountainous terrain 360 degrees of the airport. Ask American Airlines or Continental pilots... Only a few batch of them were "certified" to land in this particular runway and pilots love it because it was a "challenge" . Neverless, dynamic weather made this approach challenging for a low time pilot like myself. Suddenly low ceiling covered the airport and everything and including my concentration change... The rest is history and its been a valuable lesson for my personal experience. After hitting myself numerous time on my head repeating " how could I've done this...?" I realize that I needed to focus more on how to get this fixed and stop beating myself for it. I'm very thankful to be able to discuss this issue freely and responsible, but most of all, I respect and aprreciate every comment, opinion or critic that has come from this issue. It has made me realize the amazing detail put by everyone of the builders of this crafts and the importance of sharing and supporting fellow colleagues in time of need. I look forward to have my plane up and running in the close future and will keep you abreast of the progress.

 

Respectfully,

Afif Saybe

[Kent Ashton]

The nice thing about these airplanes is that you can fix stuff pretty easily. It just looks intimidating if you haven't worked on one of these.

 

It looks like most of the nose gear box is still there, the nose gear hard points are still intact so it might be a pretty fast repair, once you get some new nose gear parts. You might want to add a 1/4" steel skid plate at the top of the nose gear. Been there. Good luck.

-Kent

Cozy Mk IV

[saybeengineering]

AOK on that Nose plate. Will do Ken...I ordered anew nose strut and a new Electric Noselift. I'm committed to make this experience worthwile and make this plane look like before ans safer. Thanks for your time.

 

Afif

[Drew Swenson]

My first repair job was to replace the stripped gear mechanisim in the nose---sheared all the teeth off by inadvertantly taxiing with the gear not all the way down. My first solo flight. Needed the plans to figure out what was going on in there. We have all had to repair something---that was just my first one---and I barely owned the plane at the time.

[saybeengineering]

Yes....I'm also familair with that Brock Part too... Not cranking it up 100% will do that. It happen once while hoping into the airplane... 230Lbs will do it. Ordered the flat gear and it was a challenge to changeit, but it was also My first repair. Will see how it goes...will keep you folks posted...

[saybeengineering]

However, I have an extra CD that I'm going to put up for sale soon which you can have for $200 if you want.

 

 

Jon:

I'm interest on the CD, Please contact me at saybeengineering@hughes.net so we can detail the payment and the shipping....Downloaded the plans from the mentioned sites. Are the dimensions on the CD??

[Jon Matcho]

Are the dimensions on the CD??

The plans are on the CD, along with newsletters #1-82. There are some dimensions in the plans, and any remaining dimensions are covered in the drawings, which you can download today at Open-EZ project forum link.

[harley100]

Don't feel like that you are the first to land with your gear up Afif there are a lot of pilots out there that has done things like this and are to embarased to talk about it but the people that can admit that they made a mistake will learn from it and it won't happen again I worked for a lot of companys doing aircraft maintance over the years and you would not beleive some of the stuff that the pilots have done for instance I was working at the tri-state airport in Huntington West Virgina one winter and a pilot came into the hanger and said that he wanted me to remove the ice and snow from his airplane so I said ok I went up on the Ramp and towed the Airplane Into the Hanger As I started to remove the snow from the wing I saw holes in the top of the wing This guy had taken one of the things that you scrap the Ice off your windows and used it like a hammer to try and get the Ice off the Wing Needless to say there were a lot of damage to the wing he did not admit to this because the airplane did not belong to him it belonged to the goverment{ mail Plane} that was bad enought but you know what he did? He went and flew the aircraft with the holes in the wing anyway sorry about the long post but guys like this never Learn

Bob F

[saybeengineering]

Thanks for the kind words Bob. I'm glad we can learn from mistakes and very greatful for the second chance. At the same time. I'm excited and looking forward to make the EZ better.....Will keep the forum posted....