Gear up landing DA42

[Graham]

http://www.kathrynsreport.com/2011/12/d ... 593er.html

[carym]

http://www.kathrynsreport.com/2011/12/d ... 593er.html

I hate to hear this. At least no injuries. You'd think that with an instructor in the plane that this shouldn't happen with two pairs of eyes looking for three green.

Cary

[Tommy]

Ouch!!!

[Steve D]

I haven't seen any photos but am interested to hear how much damage was actually done to the A/c.

Per Diamond's CEO, Dr Berchtold, the DA42 should actually suffer less damage in a wheels-up landing relative to other comparable aircraft. The composite props shear off on contact and the clutch ensures that there is no requirement to tear the engines down for shock loading tests. The wing walk steps are designed to support the rear of the aircraft so it should skid on the steps and the bottom of the nacelles. Replacing the props and the scratched bits should get you back in the air.

While this seems a little simplistic, it would be interesting to find out just what repairs are necessary.

[Thomas]

Here is the report of a DA42 gear-up landing in Switzerland. Almost no damage.

http://www.bfu.admin.ch/common/pdf/2103_e.pdf

[Keith M]

Assuming the "major damage" reported in the article linked to by Thomas is correct, maybe that's the difference between a deliberate gear up landing, and an unexpected one.

[Steve D]

Keith

Thomas's report indicates minor damage. Kathryn's report on the first accident states major damage at the start but if you scroll down, the damage is recorded as minor.

The photos of the Swiss accident show remarkably little damage. Even the props look unscathed as they stopped the engines before touchdown.

In both incidents, there were zero injuries.

I wonder what was the length of the landing roll?

[Aart]

I wonder what was the length of the landing roll?[/quote]

The scraping roll was 220 m, see page 7

[Thomas]

Steve,

the landing roll was a landing slide ... 220m / 722 feet - touch down at 60kts - wind from the front left at 4 kts.
It was the day when whole IFR and commercial traffic in Europe was grounded due to the vulcano ash from Island - the name of the vulacano "Eyjafjalljökull" easy name isn`t it. Thomas

[Erik]

Maybe that Swiss plane had the engines off before touch down and it didn't seem so bad and the belly wasn't so badly damaged, but I am sure it will still be a very very expensive fix between still needing a tear down inspection, new props, and belly panel work.

I was at the airport recently when an airplane had a gear collapse upon landing. Other than some expensive fix work - safety wise it was a very much non event as the airplane just skids to a stop still tracking the runway center line.

A few years ago, locally there was a twin that did a gear up landing and in the plane was a CFI and a CFI/DPE. It can happen to anyone at some point of distraction. It would be very easy to just forget! Despite running your GUMPS 3 times as I promise myself. About 9 months ago I switched to a turbo Mooney. First thing I did was add a P2Audio warning system:
http://www.p2inc.com/audioadvisory.asp
which is called "bitchin betty". It speaks to you in English through your headset - if you are slowed to 90IAS and manifold pressure pulled back as if beginning a landing configuration, then if gear is down it says in a deep male voice - gear is down - but if gear is up - it says in an urgent female voice and repeats - check gear - check gear - check gear. How is that for a reminder?