#77 Gear wont go down!!!

[hm66sk]

Re: #77 Gear wont go down!!!

That's insane. Glad Mr. Hinton could help. Do you guy's have your laptops down there with you? I won't be able to get down there till Sun. after Saturdays work and honey do's but, this is the next best thing.

[BJH]

Re: #77 Gear wont go down!!!

That's insane. Glad Mr. Hinton could help. Do you guy's have your laptops down there with you? I won't be able to get down there till Sun. after Saturdays work and honey do's but, this is the next best thing.

You can listen to streaming audio of the race from the RARA site.

[billlavonne]

Re: #77 Gear wont go down!!!

Can somebody let us know the results of todays unlimited gold? where did the Bear finish?

[tow-3]

Re: #77 Gear wont go down!!!

its already up at www.airrace.org they are pretty fast getting the results up this year.

[glider90]

Re: #77 Gear wont go down!!!

I am listening to the streaming audio live from Columbus Ohio. We all bash on RARA at times for the way they run things, and the announcers, and...well, lots of stuff. However this is one of the greatest things they have done in a while for the fans that cannot make it every year. Is it perect? No. Is it WAY better than what we had last year? Absolutely! Hopefully they expand on it from here.

[MikeS]

Re: #77 Gear wont go down!!!

My stomach was churning during this whole episode. Wooweee was I relieved when he landed safely and rolled to a stop. They left him on the tarmac until they checked out the gear.

[BUD_XXX]

Re: #77 Gear wont go down!!!

I was, once again, out in the desert, when we noticed the Pace jet pulling up behind the Bear...

Listening to the scanner, Hinton and Jackson in the pace plane, talking Mr Penney thru several options....

Mr Penney, getting low on spray bar water, and oil temps climbing, sounded "pretty steady" when they started talking about a wheels up landing being the "best" option...(ickkkk!)

But luckily, right above us, Mr Penney yanked the stick back for several positive "G's", was able to drop the right gear down... and land on "one-four".

Wheeeeewwww!~

[Wilnit]

Re: #77 Gear wont go down!!!

Just like the end of last year, so much drama!!!! Glad all came out okay, John Penney is one H$#@ of a pilot and Steve Hinton is amazingly awesome. They went thru so many scenarios in such a short amount of time. Not a huge Bear fan, but so glad everything came out okay... I am definately a Penney fan, hands down one of the best I have ever seen...

WRL

[MMPerk]

Re: #77 Gear wont go down!!!

There's a little to more to add.

While yanking back on the stick to generate positive G's, John was pulling on the emergency gear release, on the third pull, the gear fell and locked into place.

It could have been much worse. The belly landing idea went south...the left gear would not retract when John tried to retract the landing gear.

I talked to him over at the Strega pit on my way out. Super glad and happy to see everything worked out for the best.

There was a gear door dragging in the slipstream, and it caused lots of damage. Thus the problems with the landing gear. There are spare pocket doors, but not so sure about spare main doors, I don't recall seeing any around.

Thank Heaven everything worked out.

LP

[BUD_XXX]

Re: #77 Gear wont go down!!!

One of the fellows I was with, took a great digital shot, of the bottom of the Bear, but we could not see anything askew. It all looked tucked away...

I wonder if cycling the gear several times would have re-secured that door? That's probably why it looked clean..

Or more likely, we didn't know, what the heck we were even looking at.....duhhh!

[Inverted]

Re: #77 Gear wont go down!!!

You know I am really glad to have a Veteran pilot like Steve as pace. Anyone who didnt know about the bearcat, or any other warbird for that matter it could have ended much worse. Because of Steve and Planes of Fame I really think his experience saved the day. And thank god there was a cool calm and collective pilot like John in Bear. There is no time for anything other than getting the job done. I can only hope they can patch Bear up enough to race tomorrow and Sunday especially.

[Inverted]

Re: #77 Gear wont go down!!!

One of the fellows I was with, took a great digital shot, of the bottom of the Bear, but we could not see anything askew. It all looked tucked away...

I wonder if cycling the gear several times would have re-secured that door? That's probably why it looked clean..

Or more likely, we didn't know, what the heck we were even looking at.....duhhh!

They cycled the gear several times. John was getting an up and locked indication in the cockpit while Steve was reporting a down and locked left main. The right as I understand it didnt move the entire time. Finally cycling the gear handle wouldnt bring the left up which resulted in talks of a single gear landing. The tailwheel cycled as normal the entire time according to Steve. John was a little unsure on applying the G forces and Steve coached him all the way through. It worked perfectly. At the beginning of the problem John reported 60gal left. I am not sure how much he had when he landed but I think the situation lasted about 10-15 min. It got scary when John was low on spraybar water and his temps were rising.

[flyride]

Re: #77 Gear wont go down!!!

At the end, it sure sounded to me that both JP and SH were resigned to a single gear landing, which would have been catastrophic. I remember hearing something like, JP: "well, it didn't work", SH: "real sorry about that" and then about five seconds later Steve excitedly reported the gear came down.

Somehow in the middle, John keeps his sense of humor: "Steve, we have got to stop doing this."

During all the cycling the left gear never moved so a belly landing was never in the cards. The Bear was out of spraybar (reported overtemp when he shut down) and probably about 10 gallons of gas when John touched down. Serious drama!!

Glad everything turned out safely, hope they can repair her quickly.

Tim

[Nick]

Re: #77 Gear wont go down!!!

Too much drama for this Bear fan. Glad John is okay and happy the plane made it down with little damage. In one of the pics below you can see the right gear door flapping in the breeze on the second or third lap. You can also see how happy the Bear crew were to get John back safely. They were all very nervous like the rest of us were and let out a sigh of relief when she touched down.

I sure hope the rest of the week is drama free for this crew...

[Fence Sence]

Re: #77 Gear wont go down!!!

Good God, that was intense. We all held our breath for what seemed like ever. And then it popped down. You shoulda heard the cheers. Whewww!