APRIL 1994

I was one of those that got his PPL before his driver’s licence and often had to ride the old bicycle out to the airfield to fly.  But I got into the work scene and ended up at Grand Central working for a real and proper schyster (no names no packdrill).  All things being what they are, I came into a little bit of dosh and felt that perhaps I needed to do a conversion onto something with VP prop and retracts.  First option was a Mooney 201, which quickly got binned when the young Mr Paul Smith convinced me that a C210T was the only way to go, and I completely agreed without any doubts.  Conversion done and thoroughly loving the C210T (of course, the legendary ZS-AVB) I decided to invite some friends for my first alone Hire & Fly exercise. 

 

My friend, and his fiancé, both avid aviation supporters, didn’t hesitate and arrived at Grand Central at the due time and day.  Take-off was uneventful and we enjoyed the little jollie over Pretoria with my friend taking lots of pics of his house and Menlyn Shopping Centre and all.  Time duly came for us to return to Grand Central, it being late afternoon I didn’t want to hang around too much for fear of it getting dark and/or a thunderstorm making an appearance. 

 

Routing via the N1 across the threshold at Waterkloof and approved straight in onto Runway 17 from the North.  Before landing checks complete and a double check for the wheels down and locked and the fright of my life when the nose gear didn’t indicate a green light!!  Promptly recycled the gear with no change and of course checked the bulbs (all working).  Got approval to break off the approach and get into the GF to see if we could fix the problem.  The usual process got started with myself flying the airplane and my friend (who is not really a small chap) pumping the manual gear extension for all that he’s worth.  I requested a fly-by for the tower to have a look see, which we did, and the tower confirmed that the nose gear was not extended but main gear seemed down and locked.  They also mentioned that the front set of nose gear doors were open but not the rears and the nose wheel was still properly up and hidden from view!

 

The GF was entered once again and manual pumping continued.  In the meantime we had several pilots on the radio giving us suggestions and offering us advice.  From SAA captains to Bizjet captains!! One suggestion was to climb and gain some altitude and then enter a steepish dive with a pull out at the bottom whilst pumping the manual gear extension (To hopefully get gravity to assist)  Nada, Niks, No Joy!

 

Eventually the legendary Mr Paul Smith gets on the radio (in the tower) and tells everyone to “shut the hell up”, we’ve got to get on the ground before it gets dark (which was fast approaching!).  Paul briefed me on procedure (which ironically was fresh in my mind from the very recent conversion to type) and we got ourselves ready for the landing on Runway 35.  Fire engines summoned and at the ready, lights flashing and standing guard along the side of the runway, landing approval received, landing briefing completed (sunglasses removed and stored in the door pockets!), base leg and turn onto finals with full flap, short finals kill all the electrics, unlatch the doors and pull the mixture…  over the numbers, flare and hold it, hold it, hold it, (felt like a lifetime), speed decaying and eventually the nose settled on the runway with the prop taking a few chunks out of it.  It felt like we were properly in a vertical nose-down position sliding down the runway.  I didn’t even try to keep her straight and drifted off to the right of the runway just onto the grass where we came to a stop!  Doors open, friends out and then I’m out and vomiting next to the runway (I felt I had a good enough excuse!).

 

There lay ZS-AVB, one of the highest airframe time C210T’s in the world having done ANOTHER gear-up landing.  Engineers arrived, pulled the tail down, unlatched the rear nose-gear door pin and “voila!” the nose gear drops and locks into place.  Just that one little lock-pin not releasing caused all the drama!

 

Needless to say, Russel Langley got me back in the air the very next day with him to do a test flight on another C210T - “Get back on the horse”, he said, and I’ll NEVER forget it!  RIP Russel and thanks Paul!