I had said 'no' before, not only for this aircraft ride but to many other rides as well.
My standing rule was not to fly in anything or with anyone I didn't know very well, and my other reason was to never fly in anything faster than the aircraft you own, lest you become unhappy with what you have from there on out. But, my friend caught me at just the right moment and he knew I didn't have anything else to do, like wash my hair. Besides, I felt a little guilty having turned him down a couple of times already.
Mistake No. 1
This particular Glasair III had a history, a gear history. It had a gear failure the same day my friend picked it up after his money became someone else's. He didn't even get it home. It all started with electrical problems, an alternator caution light and an open gear pump circuit breaker. He thought the gear was down, but had no gear lights to prove it and ended up with a prop tip strike before pouring the coals to it and going around. He pumped the gear down and made an uneventful landing. The transponder antenna on the aft belly was exactly one inch tall now, where it used to be four. Of course he needed to have the engine torn down, inspected and gears replaced, as well as to purchase a new propeller.
Back to my ride. On a CAVU day, during a straight-in approach from nine miles out with the gear down, the over-amp caution light came on and the gear pump circuit breaker popped. The PIC informed the tower that he was going around. He did not climb to a safe altitude, but stayed below pattern altitude. I found it strangely funny that he never turned off the music we were listening to.
Mistake No. 2
Then the PIC informed the tower of our little problem. He pulled out the emergency gear handle and started to pump as we turned crosswind. I watched as the nose of the aircraft bobbed up and down with every pump. I also noticed the airspeed decline.
Mistake No. 3
Finally, I said, "Look, either you fly and I pump, or visa versa, and turn off that music." I took over the pumping. The PIC then reset the gear pump circuit breaker and cycled the gear handle so many times and so fast I lost track of where the hell it was.
Mistake No. 4
We made a fly-by of the tower and asked for a visual on the gear. Tower responded with, "November XXX, your landing gear appears to be down," followed almost immediately with, "November XXX, just to be clear, your landing gear 'appears' to be down." Liability for the tower, you know. I looked out and I could see the fire trucks on the roll.
On downwind I asked, "You want me to keep pumping?" He did. I was pumping for all my 6'2", 205 pounds can pump. Then, slowly, something occurred to me. Its funny how things seem to slow down in these situations isn't it? Well, it occurred to me that 'it is awfully hard to pump this handle.' I mean I've got both hands on it and it is hard.
I thought to myself, 'If it is this hard to pump, you could not possibly do it and fly this aircraft.' It was then that I stopped pumping. We turned final and the PIC informed me that he was going to hold the nose gear off the runway for as long as possible in case it collapses. I took another look at the gear lights and wondered, 'Why is it that, to me, it looks like it's the right gear light that is out, not the nose. Well, this isn't my aircraft and I don't know squat about it. Plus, it doesn't matter much now.'
We touched down and, let me tell you folks, if the nose gear was going to collapse it sure would have on this landing. I thought we had just trapped on the Ronald Reagan!
Mistake No. 5
Well, nothing collapsed and I silently wondered why we continued down the runway to taxiway Charlie Three instead of stopping on the runway. Then, to my surprise, the PIC asked ground to taxi to his hangar. I watched as the fire trucks followed us to his hangar and waited while we shut down. No less than three right turns and two lefts were required to get to the hangar. I climbed out in my socks since I had removed my shoes just to get my gunboats in that tiny hole they call a foot well. All I could think was that I didn't have to jump out and run through the stickers in my socks to get away from the fire.
Mistake No. 6
It turned out that all that pumping didn't do a thing. The right hydraulic strut had snapped at the rod end and was hanging down in the gear well. It also turned out that the right gear had been down ever since the PIC selected down the first time, and in fact, they had all been down. Only the over-centre arms had kept it from folding up on landing and during the taxi in. The gear lights were miss-wired and the micro-switches on the gear were out of limits.
The only thing all my pumping had done was to jeopardize the other gear actuators, as we had no less than 3000 p.s.i. showing on the hydraulic pressure gauge when we only needed 500. I guess the PIC should have told me about that, eh? It's a wonder I didn't blow the hoses off!
Mistake No. 7
What did I learn? A lot, as it turns out, but also a lot I already knew.
1. Don't fly with anyone if you don't want to, ever.
2. Climb to altitude when trying to fix a problem and remember the three most useless things to a pilot: The altitude above you, the airspeed you don't have, and the runway behind you.
3. Fly the aeroplane first and delegate responsibilities if you have the option to do so.
4. Take your time and think about the problem and how your systems operate before you start flipping switches and pumping handles.
5. Just fly the aircraft as you would normally. Don't try any fancy dancing unless you know your aircraft intimately, and even then it's probably not a good idea.
6. Brief your crewmember on what to do and what to watch.
7. Open the canopy or door prior to touching down. The ditch beside the runway, with fire licking your feet, or socks in my case, is not the time to find out it won't open.
8. Let the aircraft roll and stop on the runway before proceeding to taxi away as if nothing had just happened. Get out and check the gear right then and there on the runway, then push the aircraft slowly off the runway. We could have easily folded the right gear during braking or turning while taxiing in. Then, there would have been a mess on the runway and it would take a lot longer to move and fix than just taking a couple minutes to look! The tower will be happier with that as well.
9. Know your aircraft and its systems. It turns out that Glasair had issued a service bulletin concerning the landing gear actuator rod ends. It seems they were breaking.
And No. 10 is: Keep your shoes ON and turn that damn music OFF!
