http://www.condoraero.com
ZELIENOPLE (KDKA)- It was a rough landing for one pilot at the Zelienople Municipal Airport Sunday afternoon.
The plane was several minutes away from the airport when the pilot, Ross Edmondson, tried to deploy the landing gear. The instrument panel notified Edmondson and his passenger that one of the landing gears wouldn’t go down.
They called to the airport for help. The airport sent another plane in the air to check and see if the landing gear was in fact stuck.
The plane circled the airport for about an hour to burn off all the fuel in one of its tanks.
Edmondson was able to guide the plane down to the runway at 65 miles per hour and make a gentle landing on the belly of the plane.
He could have opted to land it on two of the three wheels, but Edmondson said that would be more dangerous.
“There’s more chance for the aircraft to veer off course and for damage to occur, and more importantly, for people to get injured. Together, with the people on the ground, we decided to leave all the landing gear up and just come to a gentle landing on the belly,” he said.
The single-engine 1971 Piper Arrow gently touched down and stopped shortly after hitting the runway. Neither Edmondson or his passenger, a student pilot, were hurt.
Edmondson says he has flown with a partial engine failure before, but never had to deal without landing gear. He says practice makes perfect.
“Yeah, i feel perfectly calm, glad it worked out well. It’s the kind of emergency you practice for and train for, and it’s nice that it all works out the right way in reality,” said Edmondson.
The plane was loaded on to a truck and towed away for inspection.
The plane is shared by the members of the Condor Aero Club at Zelienople Municipal Airport. The club shares six planes among the 100 members.
http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com
Pilot Ross Edmondson, 33, of Sewickley landed his plane just before 6 p.m. without any major consequences after he recognized his landing gear wasn't functioning properly.
"We found out there was a problem when we tried to put our landing gear down, so I radioed my club members that were here on the ground," Edmondson said. "They sent up another aircraft to fly information and inspect (the landing gear), but in the end we couldn't get it down."
Edmondson is a member of the airport's Condor Aero Club and has 10 years of flying experience, including 1,150 hours of flight time under his belt. He said situations like having to land without proper landing gear are something all pilots train for.
"It's very unusual, but you do a lot of training for the unlikely eventualities, so there wasn't any concern or panic," he said. "We already knew what we had to do."
The club called local emergency responders and authorities to the scene while the plane was still in flight, but Edmondson and a female passenger were not injured in the landing.
Story and Photo: http://m.timesonline.com
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