Page 9 - Nov23T

Sometimes our equipment fails us.
Unicom frequency to look at the airplane as he made a low approach. The FBO reported that the nose wheel was retracted, and the pilot then decided to circle the airport in visual conditions. At the same time, he had the owner- passenger in the right front seat run the appropriate emergency checklist. None of the checklist procedures produced a green light for the nose wheel, and the pilot decided to land and hold the nose off as long as possible, ideally until the propellers stopped moving. He accom- plished the landing quite well, with the airplane sliding to a stop, nose down on the runway centerline. As it turned out, the chain from the electric motor to the nose wheel mechanism broke. Even though this was not his fault, the pilot was still quite sheepish about describing what happened when I interviewed him at the site. The other pilots hanging around to see what happened described it as, “Well, stuff happens.”
Flying requires constant attention, operational currency, and the repeated use of procedures and habit patterns to make it safer. Ironically, experience, repetition and high flight time are not necessarily protective, as they can lead to boredom and accidents. Finally, airplanes are not perfect; machines sometimes break.
Reducing the inevitable ‘stuff’ that happens is our high- est responsibility. Hoping it is the airplane you can blame, not yourself, isn’t a solution. We must know our limita- tions and those of our machine’s systems to enjoy our freedom to fly.
Kevin Ware is an ATP who also holds CFI, MEII and helicopter ratings, has more than 10,000 hours and is typed in several differ- ent business jets. He has been flying for a living on and off since he was 20, and cur- rently works as a contract pilot for various corporations in the Seattle area. When not
working as a pilot he is employed part time as an emer- gency and urgent care physician. He can be reached at kevin.ware2@aol.com.
November 2023 / TWIN & TURBINE • 7