Challenger Québec 11 medevac very close call CYUY

[boogiepilot]

The "gravel kit" could be the cause of the problem. Well done!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fu3pFBGlNX0

[TA/RA]

Great Job Guys!

[FL020]

am I missing something or did the nose gear come down after they landed on the mains???

[Bushav8er]

Freakin' unbelievable, and lucky, that on the roll out, keeping the nose up as long as possible, the nose decided to deploy AND lock making that a 'non-event'.

Good job.

[boogiepilot]

For those who can understand french, the communications between the pilots and the YUY FSS.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJbdINyDcOg

[Beefitarian]

That was amazing. Thanks for posting.

The emotions must have been intense. Waiting to scrape the nose all that preparation then the wheel finally comes down.

[Troubleshot]

Great job by the crew! The nose gear may have deployed after WOW of the mains, something messed up with logic of the proximity system...just a shot in the dark.

[peakbagger]

Now that was Fucking Awsome!

[peice]

Nice! I love happy endings

[privateer]

Nice work. Pure Luck however!

Question? Who uses a Challanger for medevac operations? Isn't that a bit overkill?

[Siddley Hawker]

I think the Swiss have a few, bmc could probably confirm that. I've been medevaced with that aircraft, it's pretty well equipped. They can accommodate about 3 or 4 incubators if I remember correctly, and the same number of stretcher patients. There's an elevator built onto the airstair door that loads the stretcher horizontally and they can carry out rudimentary surgery on board. The Challenger replaced a DH125, one of the first ones a 1A. With that thing if they had a medevac on Iles de la Madeline, Mont Joli had to be good for an alternate since they couldn't do Quebec - Grindstone - Quebec if they missed GR. The same with Quebec - Kuujjuaq, the airplane didn't have the legs if the alternates were few and far between. That's also one of the first Challengers, so they probably got a deal on the purchase price. The QB government also have a -8/200 executive aircraft that doubles as a medevac machine.

[SAR_YQQ]

There is an established technique for forcing the gear down on the Challenger. That video happened over a two hour period. The crew had already attempted once to force the nose gear to deploy via a heavy landing on the mains (using gravity). They then flew around for 90mins to burn off fuel before the next attempt.

[boogiepilot]

That is "probably" the gravel kit that cause the problem... That is the second occurence. The first one was on the previous Challenger C-FURG in march2008 at CYQB. FURG is now time ex (+or- 30 000 hours) and the governement of Québec chose to buy an older NAVCAN challenger (C-GCFC).

For that kind of services and due to the size of the province, a challenger is a must.

[cgzro]

Nose gear extension is fighting drag, so lowering speed as much as possible helps. Likely once on the mains and speed reducing the drag drops below some threhold and out she pops. I suppose a ard landing on the mains could help but those landings looked pretty soft.

Dumb question, whats a gravel kit? Is it what it sounds like ... a way to operate off gravel runways.. yikes.. must be hard on the engines.

[linecrew]

Nose gear extension is fighting drag, so lowering speed as much as possible helps. Likely once on the mains and speed reducing the drag drops below some threhold and out she pops. I suppose a ard landing on the mains could help but those landings looked pretty soft.

Dumb question, whats a gravel kit? Is it what it sounds like ... a way to operate off gravel runways.. yikes.. must be hard on the engines.

Gravel kit on the CL-601 is a plate around the the nosewheels to deflect debris to the side so that it doesn't fly up into the engines . Also there are deflector plaets on the front of the the main gear struts. It looks like the nose gear extension is actually assistsed by drag as it retracts forward. I find it odd that there were never any nose gear extension issues with this Challeneger or the other one (C-GCFI) that NavCanada and prior to that Transport Canada operated for flight checks and both had the gravel kits on them.

[bizjets101]

Previously posted here; viewtopic.php?f=105&t=72571

Government of Quebec previously operated Three Hawker 1A's, C-FSEN, C-FHLL, C-FPQG.

C-FSEN was ex- Ford of Canada, Skycharter machine. (C-FSEN was almost written off by Innotech Maintenance at YUL - they needed to remove all the fuel from the aircraft - to weigh the plane during a major check - they left the vent plugs in - and collapsed both wings, - and a new set of wings was added). So when it started with QC it had new wings!!
C-FHLL was ex Labrador Mining of Toronto - which as a Quebec Air Ambulance was damaged and written off in 1983 - unknown details other than fuselage was at YHU.
C-FPQG which had been originally the Quebec Govt. Jet.

and Three Challengers

C-FURG which had a nose gear collapse in March 08 - was repaired , and retired Oct 2010
C-GCFG a 1984 CL-601
C-GQBQ a 1989 CL-601

Also Swiss Air Ambulance operated 3 CL-604's

[rob-air]

Also Swiss Air Ambulance operated 3 CL-604's

[/quote]

Its REGA.They are a private insurance compagny, high end stuff.
http://www.rega.ch/fr/home.aspx

[bizjets101]

Photo off the REGA site, but I liked the caption that went with it, 'During the jets’ stay in “intensive care”, Rega’s aircraft mechanics accompanied the maintenance activities on location.'

[Siddley Hawker]

If I remember right they took the wings off HLL and put them on SEN.

[DowneastGuy]

I had an aircraft at Innotech for maintenance at the time of the 125 wing collapse. As I remember being told, the wing was shipped back to the UK for repair. On it's return to YUL it was hit by a truck following unloading and had to be repaired again. Almost 30 years ago so I might have the story wrong!

[bizjets101]

I faintly remember HLL's wings being used, and the fuselage of HLL being abandoned at St. Hubert.

CF-SEN was originally delivered to SENAC Investments, Toronto, then Ford Canada who painted it red and black, it was eventually transferred to Skycharter - who still operated it for Ford Canada. Skycharter sold it to Quebec Govt., it was sent to Montreal for major checks by Innotech - which is when the wing incident occurred.


SENLAC Investments


Ford of Canada (Skycharter kept the same paint scheme)


Province of Quebec Air Ambulance