The landing nearly beat me to pieces, not fun. But I got down okay, got my
gas, and got ready to leave. By now, as is usual with these birds, I'd drawn
quite a crowd. After dispensing with the usual questions (how fast, how
high, do you need a license) I managed to get my bird cranked and turned to
depart.
This is when I made the biggest mistake of all up to this point. I failed to
walk the spanI planned to takeoff from. The ruts were unbelievable and I was
actually bounced into the air, VERY hard, before the plane was quite ready
to fly. I managed to get the nose down and caught it before smashing back
down and established my climb.
After a few minutes of letting the nerves settle, I thought, "Man, that was
one rough landing and takeoff. I sure hope this bird is holding together."
So I began a visual scan. Wings okay, tail okay, right main okay. Left main?
Left main? Gone! Yeah, that last bump literally ripped the main gear and
gear leg off the airplane.
I had the 'pleasure' then of completing the flight to my home field
wondering just how badly I was going to be mauled when I crashed this thing
on two wheels. I'd actually seen a two wheel landing done once, when a guy's
wheel just fell off as he rolled down the runway. (Rushed his pre-flight it
turned out and forgot the safety pin.) So I knew the technique, which is to
land real soft, wait for the wing on the damaged side to start to drop, then
give it all the opposite inputs you've got.
I had to buzz the runway several times to get the attention of my buddies
(no radios in use back then) and they cleared all the parked airplanes out
of my way. I got it down with no additional damage other than to my already
frazzled nerves, but it was probably way more luck than skill. I was even
able to drive back to the gas station and retrieve the gear assembly and
later put it back on the plane. Again, dumb (and I mean dumb) luck.
But the lesson is, I hope, all too obvious. Landing where you don't know the
ground truth is risky. And always walk your takeoff run at a strange
location.
-Ken Fackler
Kolb Mark II / N722KM
Rochester MI
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