This girl is pretty amazing all things considered

https://youtu.be/B229-KLudTo

Wow. I'd have had to hose out the inside of the plane.

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:
Wow. I'd have had to hose out the inside of the plane.

I loved her first response to ATC when they told her and she presumably heard that a wheel fell off her plane..."Yes"

According the the comments from her dad she has already gone back up and started flying again

Cool under pressure, CHECK!

Fine job Maggie. Good for her getting right back up there.

Way to go!!!!

Whew... Her first couple of answers killed me. Then, after she had a moment to calm down back to being a pilot.

I'm glad she made it down safely.

What a trooper...

Edited: Found an interview with her. Both mom and dad are air force vets. I'm guessing her career will be starting soon...

"When in doubt, fly the airplane all the way to the crash site - If a wing falls off, keep flying it - maybe you'll figure out a way to regain control and survive" - something my old civie flight instructor said.

Probably not original but it stuck with me.

Good on the pilot for making it happen.

Definite trooper. Going to fun fun in the bar one day - “We’ll, there was that time when I was 17 and I had to crash land...”

Good for her! She remained calm and didn't turn a minor emergency into a major one. That's a real confidence booster for her as well - knowing that she can face the unexpected and remain calm.

And having also had to land a plane without a wheel under the right wing (although mine was an A-4 Skyhawk), I empathize with her.

Thanks for sharing that. Awesome job for the pilot, and instructor.

Yeah, those first couple exchanges were hard to listen to.

quote:

Originally posted by wolfe 21:
Yeah, those first couple exchanges were hard to listen to.

Yep...it almost broke my heart to listen to the restrained emotion in her voice...I can only imagine what was going through her mind

quote:

Originally posted by Bisleyblackhawk:

quote:

Originally posted by wolfe 21:
Yeah, those first couple exchanges were hard to listen to.

Yep...it almost broke my heart to listen to the restrained emotion in her voice...I can only imagine what was going through her mind

I'm glad I wasn't the only one that had that reaction. She was clearly scared to death but was keeping under control. You can hear the emotion spike again when the Flt Instructor gets on the radio but he does a great job reining her back in. He does a great job explaining everything to and keeping her calm and focused.

ATC, Flt Instructor, and the pilot did an excellent job working together to make that a safe landing.

She did a great job. Great presence of mind and focus on the task at hand. Her instructor also did a great job of keeping her busy communicating instead of worrying. The controller didn’t do too shabby either.

Ah, the wheel and lower half of the strut completely departed the airplane. Between that and it being a warrior, it might even have gotten fixed.

Prior to solo I was flying a Cherokee 140 doing landings when the instructor asked me what was the most important instrument. Because he had harped on it seeming forever, I said the attitude indicator. He said, yes, but what is the most important instrument for landing? I said airspeed. He said good and proceeded to cover it on downwind. I got slow in the flair and dropped it in from two or three feet. The airplane swerved hard right, was making a weird scrubbing sound and trying to bury the nose, even with the yoke pinned all the way back. I had the yoke all the way back wondering what next and the instructor starts hollering “Brakes! Brakes!” No sooner had I moved my feet up the pedals he hollered “No Brakes!” The airplane slowed and when I turned right to taxi off the runway everything went back to normal. We taxied to the maintenance shop, shut down and called the mechanic over. Pushing the aircraft back and forth it made a clunking sound but nobody could see what the problem was. The instructor and mechanic decided to go test fly it. I asked if I could come along. No. Okay. When they broke ground, the strut and wheel fell out, but hung by the brake line. They flew around, burned off gas, then went to a larger towered field nearby with onsite emergency service. They held the right wing off as long as possible, but when the wheel/strut assembly hit the ground it broke the brake line, hit the flap and the stabilator. When they couldn’t hold the right wing off anymore, it started scraping along on the bottom of the outer part of the oleo assembly (imagine landing with a pipe on one side instead of a wheel). This torqued the right wing. The insurance company took one look and declared it a total loss.

And this is how I totaled an airplane before I ever soloed.

Wonder if she started looking for the person that put the wheel on?

Boy, that just about broke my heart.

Good for her! And her IP, and the tower.

That was a heart-tugger for sure as a parent. Or just a human.

Good job Maggie. For once, love some of the comments I scanned through on page.

WOW! She did absolutely great. I am with PHPaul about hosing out the cockpit.

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:
Wow. I'd have had to hose out the inside of the plane.

After training enough to solo, you should have accepted the idea, intellectually and emotionally, that the airplane is going to return to earth eventually and you might as well make the best you can of it, and if you are going to panic, just point the nose at the ground.

I guess every instructor has a colorful way to say it. Mine talked about keep on flying until all the big pieces had stopped rolling, good advice when trying to land a Mooney at the table top airport at Sedona in gusting variable winds.

Long out of print, an excellent treatise on the subject is called "Fly the Biggest Piece Home." I haven't seen a copy in years, but it's as true today.