Figuring @Syonyk would be interested in this, but here’s a really good in depth debrief of the flights and issues leading up to a landing gear collapse, and then engine out crash landing of a 3/4 scale replica P51 Mustang.
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Well I don’t know if ‘edge case’ is a good term to use here, but what a way to find it. Complete electrical failure in an all electric aircraft because the inrush current of the hydraulic pump + the fuel pump was actually overloading the main bus breaker? I think I understood that right.
Sounds like that part might be a redesign/AD for the electrics on that aircraft. They didn’t seem to have a good idea of why the gear came unlocked.
That was probably the greatest save I’ve seen on that go around though. My first thought seeing it at the beginning was how good of an idea was it to go around after a gear collapse without being very totally sure that the prop hadn’t hit the ground. But he was pretty sure it hadn’t and sure enough, that was an amazing save to power up before either the wing or the prop hit pavement.
I feel bad for the Mooney; I thought for a moment did he land without clearance or light-gun at a towered airport? Turns out no, Compton is the only uncontrolled field admid a sea of class D and C airports all under the class B of LAX.
The concern with the non-redundent electrical in the engine upgrade certainly was very prescient. And proved very much to be a problem. It’s one thing if the hydraulics goes down and so you have to pancake in. If it takes the engine out at the same time…? Not so good.
Also Tha main bus breaker which wasn’t in the same spot as the rest, and clearly wasn’t highlighted in his reading of the docs and such.
I know this is serious, could have been a lot worse, and it’s tragic that this plane’s probably going to get scrapped by the insurance company, but all I keep thinking is any landing you can walk away from is a good one.
Sorry, I couldn’t resist.
Good landing, yes, but I strive for great landings.
“Down and welded” really helps on that front.
Yeah, fixed landing gear does take out one of those possible worries for sure.