767-300ER Takes it in the Chin

Maintenance crew error. Makes no difference if the pins were removed. You had to override the squat/weight on wheels switches to get the gear to retract. What rhymes with plumb?

Nose gear did not fail, maintenance crew did.

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

Thumb. Numb. Some. From. Hum. Bum. Gum. Rum.

 

Thanks, Terry. I was just about to post the same comment. It looked like the right main tried to retract also. Head up and locked again.
Switches

 

Fraw- Keep trying. You will get it eventually. First asked of me by the 12th AF Commander after a few folks had killed themselves in fighters. Shut us all down for a week and concentrated on how stupid is as stupid does.

Not a great deal crossing your feet to save bullets, but a difficult problem to solve.

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

I wonder how often airliners take off with the gear pins in? It seems to happen to every new flight engineer once, doesn't seem to happen twice though. I'm assuming pilots will pull the pins during preflight on commercial aircraft?

 

What are the gear pins?

 

They lock the landing gear in the down position so you can't accidentally drop the plane onto the ground. All of them I have seen are pretty much just a steel pin with a flag/streamer that says remove before flight.

 

Oh, damn, takes real talent to do that then, LOL.

 

Yeah, but people will do the craziest things. Retracting the gear while on the ground is always a crowd pleaser, forgetting to chock the aircraft and watching it roll into something is another favorite.

 

They are hardened steel pins that are inserted into matching hole in the retraction linkages and down lock struts in the nose and main landing gear. Before the airplane leaves the parking slot, the responsible crew member removes and COUNTS the number of pins and ascertains that he has the correct number before the airplane is cleared to taxi. There is a squat switch that deactivates the retraction circuit so that the gear can't be retracted on the ground...that is if it isn't itself deactivated and bypassed. If there is a way to botch the best designed system, somebody will find it. I know of a case where a 747 was on jacks with a mechanic inside the nose wheel well when someone at the hydraulic test bench activated the the landing gear retraction system at the wrong time. No squat switch working with the gear extended and with a hydraulic system at 3500PSI , things move fast and hard. That wasn't a nice thing.

 

yep, you can throw the gear lever up to retract the gear on the ground, with the hydraulic system up and running, and the gear will not retract until you go weight off wheels on takeoff. i have been on several aircraft in the jump seat when this was done. some pilots seem to think its "fun". the aircraft can be made to lift off enough to remove the weight from the struts, and the aircraft will appear to almost "hover" off the ground, and the gear will close. not a cool thing to be doing if you have an emergency. i have seen cargo heavies do this on take off sometimes. it makes me cringe when i see it, but i watch everything that comes and goes when i am on the ramp.

 

That is the stupidest and most nutty thing I have ever heard of in an airplane....

 

This was a favorite trick of a few B-24 pilots until one of them at Langley Field didn't have an established lift and settled back onto the runway at full power with the gear coming up.