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heard this on the radio yesterday, made my eyes a bit leaky. sounds so scared and comes back like a champ.
I knew it, damn newfangled aluminium planes. Never would have happened to steel.
Amazing stuff. Clearly scared but coped fine.
The roUte looks boring. No wonder they had to spice it up.
https://uk.flightaware.com/live/flight/N2496X
Wow. Just wow.
Must admit I was puzzled by this being on the news. When I heard the radio comms half way though I expected to hear it had been some 6yo whose parent had suddenly died or something. Someone who already knows how to fly, allowed to go up solo, managing to put the plane down is hardly high drama. I plonked down right-way-up first time I took a hang-glider up solo, and I didn't even have someone talking me through it!
A long time ago my flying instructor and I sat watching someone fly a series of firm touch and goes. He commented "that will have weakened the undercarriage and it'll probably fail on some early solo student who's done nothing wrong."
Gear collapse isn't particularly unusual. Holding a press conference afterwards is.
managing to put the plane down is hardly high drama
For a teenage student pilot, I'm guessing it was bit nerve wracking. FFS, it's a nice happy-ending news story to fill in a bit of time between all the nasty shit going on.
Not something I'd want to go through myself, but with the power of hindsight, why did they tell her?
Didn't she end up pretty much doing what she would have done anyway? Flew around a bit, then did a normal landing. Given the wind direction, she should have put the left wheel down first anyway. The only difference is it pulling when the right touched down. Might have been kinder not to tell the poor lass.
why did they tell her?
To give her the best chance of doing something about it?
For those saying "WGAF she knows how to fly" imagine losing a wheel on the motorway driving home from your test. Kind of scary. Flying in itself is a lot more hazardous than many would expect, it's only highly trained pilots and massive engineering effort that makes it a relatively safe means of transport.
Not something I’d want to go through myself, but with the power of hindsight, why did they tell her?
You're in your car. You're driving along, and unknown to you, the steering is broken. It feels fine straight ahead, but as soon as you try to turn a corner it'll do something unexpected.
There's a corner coming, and someone who knows about this (and what the unexpected behaviour is likely to be) has the means tell you about it.
Would you rather know? Or should they not tell you about it because you'll likely crash anyway?
A failed undercarriage leg *will* be a drama in the rollout, but with some preparation the effects can be mitigated.
But that's my point - it doesn't seem like they had her do anything different to what she normally would.
It's a bit like Raiders if the Lost Ark. Indy didn't actually change anything.
Guessing they made her fly round until most of the fuel was gone ?
Yes, the volume of fuel crossed my mind as well.
But that’s my point – it doesn’t seem like they had her do anything different to what she normally would.
"Can you continue circling, we're getting someone here to help you. Everything's ok. Greg wants to talk to you."
"Why?"
"Oh nothing, everything's fine. Continue circling."
"Why are those people clapping?"
"Oh nothing, everything's fine"
Erm.
When I was learning to fly at Lydd airport another student on a solo cross country radioed in that they had a rough running engine. Air traffic control cleared the circuit and we all gathered at the clubhouse to watch. The plane came in low and straight in and made a crap landing with multiple bounces but given that the engine sounded like a tumble dryer full of spanners it was an excellent result.
Back to the why tell the student?
1) Everyone in the circuit is listening to the tower on the same frequency so to clear the circuit the student'll hear
2) As above, if you know about the problem you can do something - in this case use aileron to keep that wing up for as long as possible and make sure your harness is nice and tight!