Ugh, I did it again!

[Gnomad]

Bah! Blew a tire this morning while practicing short field landings, quite exciting.

Some of you may remember my first flat, due to the cool picture, while flying NC to AZ with my 11 year old. Luckily that one happened while taxing out to the runway, after refueling in AR, and was discovered before takeoff when the tire came off the rim...THUMP THUMP THUMP!



Today's was a bit more, shall we say interesting...

First mistake was noticing tires were a bit low during the preflight, but only making a mental note to get them topped off next week while visiting the mechanic.

Second mistake was doing a bunch of short field takeoffs and landings. Not sure what I was thinking here. In retrospect pretty dumb thing to do with the low tires.

The good news is I nailed the first three, off at the early exit each time, around 1500'. Bad news, is upon planting the 4th one and jumping onto the brakes, the plane started pulling hard to the left. I managed to keep it on the pavement and got the plane straightened out. Something was clearly wrong, I seemed to be sitting a bit lower. Then, THUMP THUMP THUMP! Tire had come off the wheel, I immediately knew what was happening now, due to my previous experience with a flat tire.

There was my early exit again, and really not wanting to close down my home airport's only runway, I tried to make the right turn to exit. Quite difficult in the 42 with a blown left tire. Don't remember exactly as it all happened pretty quick, but I must have been close, if not all the way full power on the left engine to make the turn off to the right. Stopped and shut down once I was well clear of the runway and prayed I didn't trash the wheel on that maneuver.






Good news is the wheel and rest of the plane are fine, runway didn't get closed, and about eight guys, all of whom I knew, rushed out to help get the plane over to the maintenance hanger. Oh, and I kept the plane on the runway!

Check your tire pressure !

[Gasser]

Learn to listen to that little voice in your head. Keep a compressor in your hanger. No excuse, you don't have any damn wheel pants. There are a lot of bad things that could have happened to you the least of which was financial. Be safe and have fun.

[CFIDave]

If it makes you feel any better, I personally know 2 pilots at my airport who have blown a DA42 tire while practicing short-field landings and/or trying to make the first turn-off. (Fortunately this hasn't happened to my DA42.)

And even if you don't blow the tire, it's way too easy to flat-spot the tire from aggressive braking (which I *HAVE* done on my DA42). The plane is susceptible to wheel lockup and skidding with hard braking.

Consider that the DA42 main landing gear tires are exactly the same size as those on newer DA40s, despite the DA42 weighing at least 50% more. So if you're used to flying a DA40 and learn how to make short stops with that aircraft, you're going to get yourself into trouble operating a DA42 with the same brake pedal application pressures.

Remember that you "own" the entire runway upon landing and -- unless really necessary to make a short stop -- to just let the aircraft coast with light braking. When teaching/instructing/practicing short-field landings, it's best to have the student/pilot just verbally say "braking hard," rather than mashing on the pedals. Short-field landings are really a test of "spot landing" rather than braking skills.

[carym]

I do not practice such landings. The only time I had to do a short field landing was in Alaska when we couldn't make it through a pass near Denali and had to land at Healy River. I flat spotted one of my mains on that landing. It is just to easy to do and I would rather practice making smooth landings that short field landings

[Henrik]

The plane is susceptible to wheel lockup and skidding with hard braking.

Dave's right.

I've tried skidding on a wet surface during a semi-hard braking event when landing during the monsoon rain.

I've also got a friend who suffered blown main tires *twice* on his DA42-VI.

Another point: I did a semi-hard braking action a couple of months ago, and almost happened to burn the back of my left hand when putting the chocks back on post-flight; the brake pads were extremely hot.

Hard braking is indeed a bad idea on the DA42NG/-VI. I'm very conscious about going easy on the brakes and use available runway on the roll-out, as well as avoiding high speed turns and runway backtrack.

[Aart]

Me too.. One blown tire and one flat spot. On the blown tire, see the photo section. I was trying to be a good boy and make the first exit since there was a major queue in the air because 15 minutes before someone blocked the runway because of a -yes- blown tire. Sometimes it just doesn't pay to be nice.. When I told the controller I could not taxi (I did not want to run the risk of ruining the wheel, and actually doubt if I could have taxied) the controller sighed 'oh no, not another .....'

Over the last 2 years I took it easy on the brakes, and that paid off.

[Antoine]

Hmmm. Is Mr Beringer listening to this? Sounds like a great opportunity for them

[Gnomad]

My home field is 5500' with another 1500' displaced threshold, so I'm always happy to use a lot of runway. However, I've been considering going into a 2500' field (Pik n Pig) with my 42 and was testing plane/pilot real world ability. Verbal "hard breaking now" wasn't going to cut it.

I took my 40 into the field many times, but am not sold on whether my 42 will ever get the chance.

Here's a video taken from my 40, the approach will get your attention!

[youtube]http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tZFHipnvfGE[/youtube]
HD Fullscreen: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tZFHipnvfGE

I flat spotted the flight school plane once, early on in my ME training, trying to brake like my 40. However, I've yet to do it in my 42. What happened yesterday didn't involve any lockup or even tire chirping. My guess was the tire was just low on pressure and the hard breaking forces caused it to warp far enough to lose the seal on the wheel.

Very thankful the plane and I survived my stupidity unscathed. New tire went on today and she is airworthy again. Eight months ago a meridian pilot had a flat on takeoff, at my home field, and put it into the trees. Although he was OK, the plane was a total loss, so the seriousness hasn't escaped me.

Back to the 2500 ' runway, I am curious to hear any short field stories from you 42 pilots. What are your personal minimums and experiences?

Thx!

[hkavasch]

we operate a DA42 on a 2500ft strip (www.edmq.de) for 1,5 years now. Brakes need to be well maintained.. but we did not have any major issues so far... Of course we are aware, that an engine loss at take-off will be a problem. But landing can be easily managed with some training.

[carym]

My home field is 5500' with another 1500' displaced threshold, so I'm always happy to use a lot of runway. However, I've been considering going into a 2500' field (Pik n Pig) with my 42 and was testing plane/pilot real world ability. Verbal "hard breaking now" wasn't going to cut it.

I took my 40 into the field many times, but am not sold on whether my 42 will ever get the chance.

Here's a video taken from my 40, the approach will get your attention!

[youtube]http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tZFHipnvfGE[/youtube]
HD Fullscreen: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tZFHipnvfGE

I flat spotted the flight school plane once, early on in my ME training, trying to brake like my 40. However, I've yet to do it in my 42. What happened yesterday didn't involve any lockup or even tire chirping. My guess was the tire was just low on pressure and the hard breaking forces caused it to warp far enough to lose the seal on the wheel.

Very thankful the plane and I survived my stupidity unscathed. New tire went on today and she is airworthy again. Eight months ago a meridian pilot had a flat on takeoff, at my home field, and put it into the trees. Although he was OK, the plane was a total loss, so the seriousness hasn't escaped me.

Back to the 2500 ' runway, I am curious to hear any short field stories from you 42 pilots. What are your personal minimums and experiences?

Thx!

Eric,
Make sure you know your accelerate/stop distance. I can do this in just under 3000 feet, but anything less is questionable especially if density altitude is up, rain is on runway, etc. Sure you will not notice a problem 99+% of the time but that 1/1000 time that the engine coughs you cold be in a big hurt. Like all of aviation, make sure that the risk you take is worth the benefit you receive.