DA40 Departs Runway on Landing - No fatalities

Any DA40 related topics

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rwtucker
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Re: DA40 Departs Runway on Landing - No fatalities

Post by rwtucker »

As a student pilot, I excelled at barreling toward the turf . . . a different explantion however.
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Karl
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Re: DA40 Departs Runway on Landing - No fatalities

Post by Karl »

Over the last 10 years I have seen maybe 25 main tyre failures on DA 40, almost all by students. Non resulted in leaving the runway.
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Re: DA40 Departs Runway on Landing - No fatalities

Post by Karl »

One note of caution for DA 42 pilots, (I know this is DA40 forum but its the same subject) If you allow someone to fly from the right hand seat and they operate the rudder trim it is possible for them to accidentally set the park brake. If it is not noticed then the first application of brake will lock the wheels.
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Re: DA40 Departs Runway on Landing - No fatalities

Post by CFIDave »

Colin, you might have been a victim of the batch of bad Goodyear tubes installed in many DA40s around 2008-2009; our instructor had 3 flats in his DA40 with Goodyear tubes in one year (this is no longer an issue). Back when I owned a DA40 and learned about this, I replaced both main gear tubes with Michelins and never had a flat. :)

The DA42 has the same size main gear tires as the DA40, but weighs almost twice as much. Therefore if you apply the same brake pressure on a DA42 (e.g., to make the first taxiway turnoff) as you were accustomed to on a DA40, you'll flat-spot the tires or worse.

When I first flew a rental DA42 to get my multi-engine rating, I tried to demonstrate a short-field landing and applied too much brake -- easily wearing through the tire and tube, and blowing a tire! Thus I learned the hard way to always gently apply DA42 brakes.
Last edited by CFIDave on Tue Sep 12, 2017 1:44 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Colin
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Re: DA40 Departs Runway on Landing - No fatalities

Post by Colin »

Okay, I feel a *little* better about my flats. And my flat-spotting. Still want the shiny colored wheels, though.
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Re: DA40 Departs Runway on Landing - No fatalities

Post by Charbie »

I have had one main pilot side tire/tube failure while returning from an instrument training session with my 40,000 plus hour twice retired ATP. He questioned why we were pulling slightly to the left when It dawned on me my real quick we must have lost air in the tire. Right break, take the weight off the left side and taxied it off the runway. Then the fun began. Very difficult to tow it with a flat main and the the valve had sheared right off, so no refilling with air as a stop gap to move it. Two hours later and a lot of lifting of the wing and pulling with a tow and we had it back at the hangar. Tire pressures were perfect and checked regularly. One person thought perhaps too much talc caused the tube to spin and shear the valve if I had come in too hot. I'll never know but now always travel with a spare tube.
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Re: DA40 Departs Runway on Landing - No fatalities

Post by beetlebug »

I had a flat on landing a few months back. It didn't start pulling hard to the left until I was slowed down. At that point there was nothing I could do to stop it. Luckily I managed to get it stopped with the tire a few inches from the grass.

Everybody asked "was it a hard landing". I actually had the GoPro on and it was a really good landing. Slightly off centerline but otherwise super smooth touchdown. I don't want to think of how it might have ended if I didn't have a good landing.

We had to find some tools to get the wheel pant off so we could put a dolly under the tire. I felt bad for shutting down the runway with four planes waiting but it only took about 15-20 mins (felt like hours!) to get it off the runway.
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