Video of wheels up landing, then takeoff!

[Navy Chief]

Yikes!

[TARPSBird]

That fool endangered himself, his passengers (if any), and innocent people on the ground. I'm surprised he could maneuver the plane back to a safe landing and not stall out in the process.

[PRB]

Hmm... I remain only 50% convinced this wasn't an RC plane. If the props struck the ground, the engines would have been wasted. The Aerostar is a mid-wing plane though... Did this accident get reported anywhere else besides this guy's video?

[Navy Chief]

I should've added the paragraph from Facebook about it. Apparently it really happened. There was a link to the site where the aircraft is or was for sale. Description included "needs new props!"

[Navy Chief]

More information:

http://www.asias.faa.gov/pls/apex/f?...0PIERCE,N7502S

and:

[Lane Street]

If the props struck the ground, the engines would have been wasted.

Not always true.

My brother-in-law tried to land a C310 at Dillingham with the wheels up.

When the props hit the ground he pulled up and got the plane back in the air.

Then flew back to PHNL and landed safely.

The props had to be replaced, the engines were OK.

cheers,
Lane

[Willy]

Then there's this:

http://www.trade-a-plane.com/detail/...1/2076612.html

[stansdds]

Sometimes bad things happen, sometimes pilots forget procedures. Fortunately, in this case, no one was injured or killed and the aircraft can be returned to airworthy condition... by its next owner.

[PRB]

Looked like he was coming in a wee bit fast too. Good thing, as it turned out...

[srgalahad]

As an "incident" we likely won't see a comprehensive investigation report.

IIRC the Aerostar had a warning system similar to the default FS one - power reduced below a threshold, below a set altitude without gear lowered will trigger a warning voice/horn.

There are reasons to have, and follow a printed checklist; to visually confirm certain required actions; to fly an approach in a way to allow required actions to be completed; and to double-check on final with the old mnemonic - GUMP (Gear Undercarriage, Mixture, Props). Since gear systems won't show gear down when up (but might show the reverse) it would hint at sloppiness, being in a rush or overconfidence. I'd wonder what his work habits are like if this was 'recreation'.

The AIN report isn't clear what airport was the point of occurrence but if it was in the Ft. Pierce (Port St. Lucie) area -- it looks like Aero Acres (FD88) -- and he then flew back to KFLL that's ~70nm in a damaged aircraft (and over a populated area on approach). Prudence might indicate a landing at a nearby field to inspect the damage, but of course then it wouldn't be near a repair shop or his own hangar.

From the video it looks like it was at a fly-in, obviously with an audience
Thank goodness he's selling.

[PRB]

One of our pilots when I was in VA-94 forgot to put the wheels down when landing his A-7 at NAS Fallon, NV. At the time he was the operations officer and a LCDR with many hours in the jet and one of the best pilots in the squadron. He later commanded the same squadron a few years later. The A-7 has a giant red light next to the HUD, meaning right I the pilot's face, that warns when the gear is not down in otherwise "landing configuration". The point being, I guess, that "it can happen to the best of us". Of course, our A-7 pilot did not attempt to take the ship back into the air, which would have been physically impossible anyway... As for our intrepid Aerostar pilot landing at 250 knots, well, that's another matter. Maybe that's why the "gear not down" warning didn't go off...

This Tom Petty song fits:

"I'm learning to fly! (learning to fly...)
...but I ain't got wheels..."