Catalina PH-PBY makes successful emergency landing

[Eric1001]

The oldest flying Catalina in the world, PH-PBY, just made a successful emergency landing at Lelystad airport in the Netherlands.
Coming back from a memorial flight the nose wheel refused to operate.
They decided to do a landing on two wheels as the font part of the airframe should be able to handle this.
They tried it and everything went very smooth.
There were fifteen passengers on the plane as they were doing a memorial flight, but luckily nobody on board was injured.

The local tv station "Omroep Flevoland" shot some good video that shows the plane has almost no damage.
The commentary is in Dutch of course, the reporters are telling you everything looks to have ended well.

http://www.omroepflevoland.nl/nieuws/150338/lelystad-historisch-vliegtuig-catalina-maakt-noodlanding-op-lelystad-airport

It definitely looks like it will not be long before she is back in the air.

Eric

Last edited by Eric1001 on Tue Aug 15, 2017 10:08 am, edited 3 times in total.

[Warbird Kid]

Glad to see the landing went as well as it could. Great to job to the flight crew. Hope she's back in the air soon.

[sandiego89]

Wonder if a water landing (wheels up) would even be considered? I understand most PBY's are no longer operated from the water due to corrosion concerns- but have most lost the ability entirely?

[bdk]

Very chuffed that a successful noodlanding was able to be performed!

[Eric1001]

Wonder if a water landing (wheels up) would even be considered? I understand most PBY's are no longer operated from the water due to corrosion concerns- but have most lost the ability entirely?

PH-PBY is completely able to do water landings. If you book a regular half hour trip with them they often perform one and then do a water take off.
They are very proud to show this to their customers, especially while they are the oldest built and thus the oldest flying Catalina in the world.

When the wheel did not come out they thought about doing a water landing but decided not to do this.
Reason being that landing on the tarmac would take them straight to their home base where they have their own hangar, thus making the process of repairs much easier.
And the nearest available water is a couple of miles away, which would have made for a difficult trip by road to Lelystad airport.

They figured that the airframe would be able to take the force of this landing without taking much damage.
The pictures show they were right in doing this.

Eric

[Fouga23]

They couldn't land on water, because if the landing gear doors are unlocked, the water can tear the gear doors off. More then one Cat has sunk because of water ingress in the nose gear bay.

[DH82EH]

Nice job.
Thankful for the good outcome.

Andy

[Pogo]

Very chuffed that a successful noodlanding was able to be performed!

[Lynn Allen]

A great landing but wonder why they didn't try the grass if able?

[CAPFlyer]

I thought of that too, but with the nose doors open (or if I didn't know if they were open or not), I would have been concerned about digging in, just as with a water landing. Since the pavement doesn't "give" as much, that was the better choice given the circumstances.

[phil65]

Wonder if a water landing (wheels up) would even be considered? I understand most PBY's are no longer operated from the water due to corrosion concerns- but have most lost the ability entirely?

PH-PBY is completely able to do water landings. If you book a regular half hour trip with them they often perform one and then do a water take off.
They are very proud to show this to their customers, especially while they are the oldest built and thus the oldest flying Catalina in the world.

When the wheel did not come out they thought about doing a water landing but decided not to do this.
Reason being that landing on the tarmac would take them straight to their home base where they have their own hangar, thus making the process of repairs much easier.
And the nearest available water is a couple of miles away, which would have made for a difficult trip by road to Lelystad airport.

They figured that the airframe would be able to take the force of this landing without taking much damage.
The pictures show they were right in doing this.

Eric

+1
They did the right thing.

Phil

[Eric1001]

The latest on PH-PBY:
The pilot, Arjan Dros, has reported that there is only slight damage to one of the doors of the front wheel.
After the landing they got help from a large crane and thus were able to get the wheel out, so they could roll the plane to it's hangar under it's own power!

One of the doors needs to be repaired or replaced, they are figuring that out now.
Arjan expects the plane to be back in the air in two to three weeks.

He told that the problems developed when coming back from the memorial flight they did a water landing as an extra for the passengers on board. After the water landing they noticed something was wrong with the nose wheel.
His guess is they may have hit something in the water, as that is always a risk, but he did not know that for sure.

Eric