Bonanza Down

[Flyin'[email protected]]

http://www.pe.com/localnews/southwest/stories/PE_News_Local_plane15.a1078.h
tml

Here is the full story from our local newspaper. This is my local airport,
makes it more interesting I guess.


Engine stalls on approach

AIRCRAFT: It suffers damage when the landing gear fails to deploy; the
pilot was unhurt.

07:49 AM PST on Tuesday, February 15, 2005



By LEEZEL TANGLAO / The Press-Enterprise

FRENCH VALLEY - An Encinitas pilot on his way home had to make an emergency
landing on a street just short of the airport runway early Monday evening.

David Bauman / The Press-Enterprise
Pilot Todd Gross of Encinitas talks with Riverside County Sheriff's Deputy
Ryan Renick after Gross said he was forced to crash-land into a field near
Auld Road, just outside French Valley Airport.

Todd Gross, 40, was flying his white 1982 Beechcraft A 36 Bonanza from Las
Vegas to McClellan-Palomar airport in Carlsbad when he decided to make a
stop at the French Valley Airport.

"I saw another plane in the flight pattern and I waited for it to land
ahead of me but it took too long," he said. "Then I could feel that
something was different with the fuel flow."

About 6,000 feet above the airport, his said his engine stalled.

He brought his plane onto a grassy field and eventually stopped on Auld
Road outside the airport.

Gross, who has been flying for 12 years, said he wasn't sure the exact
cause of the aircraft's trouble, beyond the stalled engine, but he
suspected that one of the plane's fuel tanks was empty.

Gross said when his fuel tanks are at full capacity, his plane could fly
about 1,100 miles. He said he thought it was full when he left Las Vegas.

Most of the plane's damage was on the underbelly of the craft when the
landing gear failed to deploy, Riverside County Deputy Sheriff Ryan Renick
said.

"Our main concern now is to get this plane back onto the airport," said
Todd Cervantes , a flight instructor with French Valley Aviation.

The plane was towed to the French Valley airport for further investigation
of the incident.

As he directed incoming traffic on Auld Road, Renick said no vehicles or
other aircraft were involved. Drivers in passing cars stopped to take
snapshots of the plane.

Gross walked away with no injuries.

"It could've been a lot worst," he said.

--
Mike Flyin'8

[Peter R.]

> wrote:

> Gross said when his fuel tanks are at full capacity, his plane could fly
> about 1,100 miles. He said he thought it was full when he left Las Vegas.

Uh, oh...


--
Peter













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[OtisWinslow]

Ya know .. there's a reason I always track fuel usage off
of tach hours.


> wrote in message
...
> http://www.pe.com/localnews/southwest/stories/PE_News_Local_plane15.a1078.h
> tml
>
> Here is the full story from our local newspaper. This is my local
> airport,
> makes it more interesting I guess.
>
>
> Engine stalls on approach
>
> AIRCRAFT: It suffers damage when the landing gear fails to deploy; the
> pilot was unhurt.
>
> 07:49 AM PST on Tuesday, February 15, 2005
>
>
>
> By LEEZEL TANGLAO / The Press-Enterprise
>
> FRENCH VALLEY - An Encinitas pilot on his way home had to make an
> emergency
> landing on a street just short of the airport runway early Monday evening.
>
> David Bauman / The Press-Enterprise
> Pilot Todd Gross of Encinitas talks with Riverside County Sheriff's Deputy
> Ryan Renick after Gross said he was forced to crash-land into a field near
> Auld Road, just outside French Valley Airport.
>
> Todd Gross, 40, was flying his white 1982 Beechcraft A 36 Bonanza from Las
> Vegas to McClellan-Palomar airport in Carlsbad when he decided to make a
> stop at the French Valley Airport.
>
> "I saw another plane in the flight pattern and I waited for it to land
> ahead of me but it took too long," he said. "Then I could feel that
> something was different with the fuel flow."
>
> About 6,000 feet above the airport, his said his engine stalled.
>
> He brought his plane onto a grassy field and eventually stopped on Auld
> Road outside the airport.
>
> Gross, who has been flying for 12 years, said he wasn't sure the exact
> cause of the aircraft's trouble, beyond the stalled engine, but he
> suspected that one of the plane's fuel tanks was empty.
>
> Gross said when his fuel tanks are at full capacity, his plane could fly
> about 1,100 miles. He said he thought it was full when he left Las Vegas.
>
> Most of the plane's damage was on the underbelly of the craft when the
> landing gear failed to deploy, Riverside County Deputy Sheriff Ryan Renick
> said.
>
> "Our main concern now is to get this plane back onto the airport," said
> Todd Cervantes , a flight instructor with French Valley Aviation.
>
> The plane was towed to the French Valley airport for further investigation
> of the incident.
>
> As he directed incoming traffic on Auld Road, Renick said no vehicles or
> other aircraft were involved. Drivers in passing cars stopped to take
> snapshots of the plane.
>
> Gross walked away with no injuries.
>
> "It could've been a lot worst," he said.
>
> --
> Mike Flyin'8

[[email protected]]

wrote:
>
> Most of the plane's damage was on the underbelly of the craft when
the
> landing gear failed to deploy, Riverside County Deputy Sheriff Ryan
Renick
> said.
>


So this genius compounded the problem of running out of fuel with
forgetting to retract his landing gear for the emergency landing...
Fortunately for him, Darwin's attempt to remove him from the population
pool failed.

[John Harlow]

>> Most of the plane's damage was on the underbelly of the craft when
>> the landing gear failed to deploy, Riverside County Deputy Sheriff
>> Ryan Renick said.
>>
>
>
> So this genius compounded the problem of running out of fuel with
> forgetting to retract his landing gear for the emergency landing...
> Fortunately for him, Darwin's attempt to remove him from the
> population pool failed.

From what I read, he remembered very well to retract the gear prior to
landing.

[John T]

wrote:
>>
>> Most of the plane's damage was on the underbelly of the craft when
>> the landing gear failed to deploy, Riverside County Deputy Sheriff
>> Ryan Renick said.
>
> So this genius compounded the problem of running out of fuel with
> forgetting to retract his landing gear for the emergency landing...
> Fortunately for him, Darwin's attempt to remove him from the
> population pool failed.

Careful. Failing to retract the landing gear wouldn't have meant a grassy
belly.

Before nominating the pilot for near-Darwin awards, maybe it would be good
to wait for an investigation into the cause(s).

--
John T
http://tknowlogy.com/TknoFlyer
http://www.pocketgear.com/products_search.asp?developerid=4415
____________________

[Orval Fairbairn]

In article >,
"John T" > wrote:

> wrote:
> >>
> >> Most of the plane's damage was on the underbelly of the craft when
> >> the landing gear failed to deploy, Riverside County Deputy Sheriff
> >> Ryan Renick said.
> >
> > So this genius compounded the problem of running out of fuel with
> > forgetting to retract his landing gear for the emergency landing...
> > Fortunately for him, Darwin's attempt to remove him from the
> > population pool failed.
>
> Careful. Failing to retract the landing gear wouldn't have meant a grassy
> belly.
>
> Before nominating the pilot for near-Darwin awards, maybe it would be good
> to wait for an investigation into the cause(s).


Yes -- but the described circumstances would probably call for an FAA
checkride. If he overflew the airport at 6000 feet and lost his engine
and couldn't make the airport, there is something radically wrong with
his technique. 10 to 1 he never practiced power off approaches.

[Jürgen Exner]

wrote:
[...]
> About 6,000 feet above the airport, his said his engine stalled.
> He brought his plane onto a grassy field and eventually stopped on
> Auld Road outside the airport.

Makes you wonder what went wrong such that he couldn't make the airport

> Gross, who has been flying for 12 years, said he wasn't sure the exact
> cause of the aircraft's trouble, beyond the stalled engine, but he
> suspected that one of the plane's fuel tanks was empty.
>
> Gross said when his fuel tanks are at full capacity, his plane could
> fly about 1,100 miles. He said he thought it was full when he left
> Las Vegas.

Oh oh, not good. The insurance won't like that....

jue

[CV]

wrote:
> "It could've been a lot worst," he said.

So it may, but it would have been very difficult for that article
to have been any "worst" than it was.

Totally pointless to comment on anything reported by such an
obviously clueless writer.

Cheers CV

[John Harlow]

>> Gross said when his fuel tanks are at full capacity, his plane could
>> fly about 1,100 miles. He said he thought it was full when he left
>> Las Vegas.
>
> Oh oh, not good. The insurance won't like that....


Which kind do they "like"?

[Flyin'[email protected]]

"Jürgen Exner" > wrote:
> wrote:
> [...]
> > About 6,000 feet above the airport, his said his engine stalled.
> > He brought his plane onto a grassy field and eventually stopped on
> > Auld Road outside the airport.
>
> Makes you wonder what went wrong such that he couldn't make the airport
>

Yeah, especially when the road is no more than 50ft from the threshold.
Probably more like 30ft.

--
Mike Flyin'8

[John T]

Orval Fairbairn wrote:
>
> Yes -- but the described circumstances would probably call for an FAA
> checkride. If he overflew the airport at 6000 feet and lost his
> engine and couldn't make the airport, there is something radically
> wrong with his technique. 10 to 1 he never practiced power off
> approaches.

Maybe, but my point was if you're going to start casting aspersions on other
pilots, make sure you're accurate in your own statements. "Forgetting to
*retract*" landing gear, as "cosmo_kramer" suggested, would not result in a
belly landing as described in the OP.

--
John T
http://tknowlogy.com/TknoFlyer
http://www.pocketgear.com/products_search.asp?developerid=4415
____________________

[Jürgen Exner]

John Harlow wrote:
>>> Gross said when his fuel tanks are at full capacity, his plane could
>>> fly about 1,100 miles. He said he thought it was full when he left
>>> Las Vegas.
>>
>> Oh oh, not good. The insurance won't like that....
>
>
> Which kind do they "like"?

The one that doesn't happen and where they can keep the money? ;-)

But, seriously, running out of fuel is one good reason for the insurance to
raise the rate dramatically. While an engine failure can happen for many
valid reasons, running out of fuel is almost always a stupid pilot error.
And insurances don't like stupid pilots.

jue

[Roger]

On Tue, 15 Feb 2005 19:14:36 GMT, "OtisWinslow"
> wrote:

>Ya know .. there's a reason I always track fuel usage off
>of tach hours.

I even base my log on tac hours, but that has never kept me from
visually checking the level in all tanks.

On the Bo there really isn't an excuse for not being able to check
visually...unless you're 3 feet tall. Even my wife at 4' 10 1/2" (I
have to remember that half) can check everything except the tip tanks
and they are usually empty.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

[Ben Hallert]

> About 6,000 feet above the airport, his said his engine stalled.
> He brought his plane onto a grassy field and eventually stopped on
> Auld Road outside the airport.
> Gross, who has been flying for 12 years, said he wasn't sure the
exact
> cause of the aircraft's trouble, beyond the stalled engine, but he
> suspected that one of the plane's fuel tanks was empty.

I'm still a student pilot, but the engine-out emergency checklist in
the plane I train in has a step to switch fuel tanks (and run fuel
pump) specifically to deal with this situation. At 6,000 feet, he
should have had more then enough time to do this if he set best glide,
right? If it turns out that he was sucking on an empty tank and that's
the only problem, then this sounds like evidence that he didn't do his
checklist, or is that step not standard in Bonanza's?

Again, I'm just a student pilot, so if I'm wrong, lemme know.