Snake45 wrote:
If you absolutely HAVE to land a classic Piper twin gear-up, I doubt you could do any better than this guy. I don't think I could ride my bicycle down the runway centerline any straighter than he held it.
https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/loca ... 99813.html(If this is the wrong forum for this, please move it.)
Actually, the FAA's position is that he just got himself a more in-depth investigation and he now has to explain why exactly he took a mechanical problem and made it significantly worse by shutting down the engines inflight. I cringe every time I see a pilot do that. I've had several FAA and NTSB inspectors tell me over the years when I've attended various seminars and classes about accidents that the WORST thing you can do when faced with a gear-up landing is to shutdown the engines. In fact, I had one seminar a few years ago which had a senior investigator for an insurance company (don't remember which one right now) who flat out said that you could, in the worse case, have your insurance claim voided for shutting down perfectly good engines.
Think of it this way - if your engines are working and you shut them down and someone runs out on the runway - what are you going to do? What if there's a last second gust of wind? You've just removed EVERY option from your toolkit but one - land.
The insurance company is going to pay for those engines and props to get inspected anyway. There have been too many times where you belly in an airplane and think it's all good and then find a weld broken on the engine mount, or a sheared bolt in the hub. They don't care if it was running or not - they're going to inspect it anyway. You're not saving yourself or anyone any "money" by shutting them down. Your deductible is the same whether there's a teardown or not. Your deductible doesn't do you any good if you're dead.
Another thing that came to mind while watching this too - I had the Chief Pilot of Cirrus tell me a couple months ago when he came through here on a cross-country that both Cirrus and the Insurance Companies both tell the owners that they are to pull the chute instead of attempting a forced landing. So any time you wonder why a guy who was in the middle of nowhere pulled the chute when his engine quit instead of gliding - it's because he listened to the manufacturer and insurance company and probably saved his life. The SR-20/22 is not a great "off field" airplane, so why not use the chute which the deployment of in an emergency is fully covered under your insurance policy?