Skydive King Air lands gear up

[pelmet]

The Win Win Aviation Beechcraft B90 aircraft (N32BA) was operating under a Canadian Foreign Air Operator Certificate (Foreign Trade Agreement) for Skydive Gananoque. The sole occupant, a Canadian commercially licensed pilot, was performing circuits to become more familiar with the aircraft. As the aircraft was touching down on runway 36, the landing gear had not been extended. The aircraft contacted the runway with the underside of its fuselage and slid off the paved runway and on to the grass infield where it came to stop. The pilot was not injured but the aircraft was substantially damaged.

[Doc]

The Win Win Aviation Beechcraft B90 aircraft (N32BA) was operating under a Canadian Foreign Air Operator Certificate (Foreign Trade Agreement) for Skydive Gananoque. The sole occupant, a Canadian commercially licensed pilot, was performing circuits to become more familiar with the aircraft. As the aircraft was touching down on runway 36, the landing gear had not been extended. The aircraft contacted the runway with the underside of its fuselage and slid off the paved runway and on to the grass infield where it came to stop. The pilot was not injured but the aircraft was substantially damaged.

Hopefully, he has "become more familiar" with the aircraft. Twit.

[KK7]

I am not familiar with the systems on a King Air. What are the conditions that must be met for the gear warning to occur?

[Siddley Hawker]

I see a company name change in the near future.

[Big Pistons Forever]

A doubtlessly POS ancient King Air is written off and its pilot gets to go home before he hurts anyone at his pay to fly job. It really is "win - win"

[Sidebar]

Twit.

That's the best you can do?

[cdnpilot77]

I am not familiar with the systems on a King Air. What are the conditions that must be met for the gear warning to occur?

Depends....we have 2 that blow an unmistakable horn below 140kts with no gear which can be silenced unless the flaps have been deployed and 1 that blows the horn as soon as your torque drops below a certain level if gear isnt selected. Again it can be silenced unless flaps are selected down.

Edit: forgot to add that the gear transit lights also flash while the horn is blasting and stay on if you silence the horn

[Colonel Sanders]

That's the best you can do?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhRUe-gz690

[Doc]

I always find it scary hat on some level, some of you think this is Okay? What makes it Okay? It's an older airplane? He paid for the "job"? What exactly makes it Okay to be so bloody stupid as to forget to lower the landing gear?

[Cat Driver]

Wouldn't it be safer to part it out and maybe make a few bucks on it rather than have someone write it off doing a gear up landing?

[zeppelin]

My name is Wyn,and I do not approve this add ....

[Tanker299]

That's not that pilots first crash nor is it that king air's first incident (cooked engine in October).The pilot mentioned to someone I know something along the lines of the radar alt going off at 200 feet and he became distracted and forgot about the wheels. People willing to fly a plane like that for that kind of money don't care about much more then them selfs let alone procedures. Sadly they got what they paid for, penny wise and pound foolish.

[KK7]

I am not familiar with the systems on a King Air. What are the conditions that must be met for the gear warning to occur?

Depends....we have 2 that blow an unmistakable horn below 140kts with no gear which can be silenced unless the flaps have been deployed and 1 that blows the horn as soon as your torque drops below a certain level if gear isnt selected. Again it can be silenced unless flaps are selected down.

Edit: forgot to add that the gear transit lights also flash while the horn is blasting and stay on if you silence the horn

Thanks cdnpilot77. I've heard of several gear up landings in King Airs and I've always wondered about the gear warning operation.

Presumably the gear warning was not active during this particular gear up landing. Given the above, this means that:
- Circuits were being done with the flaps up, and the warning was muted, or
- The gear warning was not functioning at the time.

Can the gear warning be MELed or deferred in the King Air?

Would it be normal to be doing flap up landings in the King Air?

[Tanker299]

They do flaps up landings all the time. One pilot said its too much wear to cycle the flaps and it was hard to flare empty. They even take off with out flap at gross or more on 2500ft

[Jim la Jungle]

From my King Air days I remember that it's a switch in the power lever quadrant that activates the gear horn with low power settings. It's an adjustment. If set too low, you'll never hear it. I don't remember the thing with the flap setting though. With all those warnings working, and configured properly, I don't know how you can achieve a gear up landing in a King Air.

[Go Juice]

the gear Horn should be set at 79% n1 +- 2%.

Nothing to do with airspeed or torque.

[crazy horse]

I always find it scary hat on some level, some of you think this is Okay? What makes it Okay? It's an older airplane? He paid for the "job"? What exactly makes it Okay to be so bloody stupid as to forget to lower the landing gear?

I'm pretty sure that was tongue in cheek, at least that's how I read it.

[GyvAir]

With all those warnings working, and configured properly, I don't know how you can achieve a gear up landing in a King Air.

cdnpilot77 posted this example in another thread the other day of how it's done:

[Sidebar]

I always find it scary hat on some level, some of you think this is Okay? What makes it Okay? It's an older airplane? He paid for the "job"? What exactly makes it Okay to be so bloody stupid as to forget to lower the landing gear?

I'm pretty sure that was tongue in cheek, at least that's how I read it.

Nope. Read some of Doc's other posts. You want to get him going, land with your gear up.

[Salt]

What a dumb way to smash up a beautiful airplane.

[Cat Driver]

What a dumb way to smash up a beautiful airplane.

A doubtlessly POS ancient King Air is written off and its pilot gets to go home before he hurts anyone at his pay to fly job. It really is "win - win"

[CID]

I think that if TC was to do an informal check among various light twin operators, they would find that many of them have non-functioning gear horns.

The horns on many of these were crappy to begin with and pilots and maintainers alike don't seem to think they are important. When I read the post about MEL I let out a little giggle.

Sad but true.

[Salt]

Cat Driver,

I was referring to the Trinidad, not KA.

[crazy horse]

Nope. Read some of Doc's other posts. You want to get him going, land with your gear up.

I get that, I thought he was referring to this post by Big Pistons Forever.

A doubtlessly POS ancient King Air is written off and its pilot gets to go home before he hurts anyone at his pay to fly job. It really is "win - win"

[Big Pistons Forever]

Just to be absolutely clear my posts was meant to indicate two things

1) A B model King Air 90 would be a nearly 50 year old airframe and it is my experience that the last stop before the boneyard for an old beater King Air is a skydving operation. Writing off this airframe before it suffers some major inflight calamity and injures/kills some folks, is not IMO a bad thing.

2) The pay to fly pilot will I presume be fired and hopefully not get hired elsewhere which means that he got away with a demonstration of his incompetence without hurting anyone, again IMO ,a good thing.

Obviously in a perfect world this scenario should never unfold, but this is the real world and there could have been far worse outcomes here.