BradB Posted January 1, 2021 Share Posted January 1, 2021 https://www.wwlp.com/news/connecticut/small-plane-makes-emergency-landing-at-bradley-international-airport/ I wanted to post this as it’s all over the local news. I (Scott) had to make a belly landing in the Aerostar today with my son Jake as co-pilot. Let me say Jake was a complete pro and a huge boon to us getting down safely. Well, we had a very strange issue to deal with not found in the emergency section of the manual. We had a hydraulic system issue in the air, that appeared to be a hydraulic leak, and we could not get the left main gear to drop and lock. We had just the nose gear and right main gear locking down. My concern was fire (a low left wing full of fuel scraping in the runway), meaning landing with a nose and right gear extended dragging the left wing with fuel on the runway which could result in a fireball landing. We ended up raising the gear and doing a belly landing. The Aerostar was a rock and could, IMO, land on its belly 50 times. As we were scraping down the runway I was thinking “This sounds just like our B-17 belly landing.” We are safe with minimal damage to the belly but the props did touch the ground when we touched down (were feathered) which means the engines have to be torn down. Life is full of experiences and my hope is we can salvage this beautiful plane. Thank you to all of the incredible professionals who came to our help. I feel both unworthy and grateful for the incredible professionalism from our first responders. Thank you to the fire chief and everyone who worked so hard to keep us safe and recover our beautiful Aerostar. Happy new year everyone. Scott Cheers John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Q Posted January 1, 2021 Share Posted January 1, 2021 Well done in a tight spot. Thankfully nobody hurt! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wolfko Posted January 1, 2021 Share Posted January 1, 2021 1 hour ago, BradB said: https://www.wwlp.com/news/connecticut/small-plane-makes-emergency-landing-at-bradley-international-airport/ I wanted to post this as it’s all over the local news. I (Scott) had to make a belly landing in the Aerostar today with my son Jake as co-pilot. Let me say Jake was a complete pro and a huge boon to us getting down safely. Well, we had a very strange issue to deal with not found in the emergency section of the manual. We had a hydraulic system issue in the air, that appeared to be a hydraulic leak, and we could not get the left main gear to drop and lock. We had just the nose gear and right main gear locking down. My concern was fire (a low left wing full of fuel scraping in the runway), meaning landing with a nose and right gear extended dragging the left wing with fuel on the runway which could result in a fireball landing. We ended up raising the gear and doing a belly landing. The Aerostar was a rock and could, IMO, land on its belly 50 times. As we were scraping down the runway I was thinking “This sounds just like our B-17 belly landing.” We are safe with minimal damage to the belly but the props did touch the ground when we touched down (were feathered) which means the engines have to be torn down. Life is full of experiences and my hope is we can salvage this beautiful plane. Thank you to all of the incredible professionals who came to our help. I feel both unworthy and grateful for the incredible professionalism from our first responders. Thank you to the fire chief and everyone who worked so hard to keep us safe and recover our beautiful Aerostar. Happy new year everyone. Scott Cheers John Unfortunately the link is blocked for us European users. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chumley Posted January 1, 2021 Share Posted January 1, 2021 "Bradley International Airport temporarily closed and the aircraft landed on the main runway landed gear up, meaning on the bottom of the aircraft with no landing gear out, at 1:35 p.m." Love the reporters explanation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Abernathy Posted January 1, 2021 Share Posted January 1, 2021 Glad you are both safe! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Heaton Posted January 1, 2021 Share Posted January 1, 2021 Bottoms Up - or should be down ? - now you can have a really Happy New Years Celebration Well Done - A2a will be interested Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyingleaf Posted January 1, 2021 Share Posted January 1, 2021 Sad but wonderful John. Happy New Year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Cooper Posted January 1, 2021 Share Posted January 1, 2021 6 hours ago, wolfko said: Unfortunately the link is blocked for us European users. You can't beat Opera, it has a built in VPN that you can use to see this type of link. You are not missing much, Scott's description is far better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Heaton Posted January 1, 2021 Share Posted January 1, 2021 3 hours ago, Nick Cooper said: You can't beat Opera, it has a built in VPN that you can use to see this type of link. You are not missing much, Scott's description is far better. This picture placed by Scott on the A2A forum shows how good the landing was is a help Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gregmorin Posted January 1, 2021 Share Posted January 1, 2021 Glad you are safe. Looks like an excellent landing with minimal damage to the Aerostar. Greg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BPL Posted January 1, 2021 Share Posted January 1, 2021 Thread from the A2A forum: A2A Aerostar Emergency Landing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B12 Posted January 5, 2021 Share Posted January 5, 2021 Amazing, well done guys Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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