Day 3

Another windy day in South-East England, but not enough to stop some foolish trainee pilots and their intrepid instructor from braving the 30kt gusting wind...

For the first part of my training (the Multi-Engined syllabus) I am paired up with Gary. Since yesterday he sat in the back while I bounced the aircraft around, today it was my turn to be the observant student passenger, while Gary and our instructor, Mike, flew the first exercise (General Handling) again.

We departed at around 10, having first chased the aircraft paperwork half-way across the airfield after a strong gust of wind took it. A bad sign. Was there worse to come?

After a straightforward but bumpy start, we headed north again, near Blandford, to practice stalls and turns. One of the stalls has to be practiced using flap and gear down, as if the aircraft were in the landing configuration. For obvious reasons this is not practiced anywhere near the ground!

So Gary selected 'gear down' as usual, and waited for the 'three greens' to appear (these being the green lights in the cockpit that indicates each of the landing gear wheels is down and locked).

And he waited, and waited some more. After about a minute it became clear that the three greens were not coming. Not even one. Gary cycled the gear lever again, but still nothing.

Here is a picture of another pilot just before touching down without the gear down. Apparently he landed unscathed, which is more than can be said for the aircraft. Just google 'belly-up landings' to see some interesting examples of what happens next.

Ahem, so what next for us? Fortunately the Duchess is fitted with a manual emergency gear release system. This is a trap door beneath the pilot's seat that reveals a small valve. Opening the valve releases the hydraulic pressure keeping the gear up, and gravity then assists in bringing the gear to a down and locked position. Since this was going to be the next thing to practice anyway, Gary duly opened the trapdoor and the valve and within a few seconds three greens appeared. Great.

Strangely enough the hydraulic system was working sufficiently well enough to re-retract the gear, but once again it failed to open. So with it fully demonstrated that a) the hydraulic gear extend was not working but b) the manual emergency system courtesy of Sir Isaac Newton was working fine, we returned to base, Gary executed anther manual execution of the system, and landed the aircraft gently after a very gusty and difficult approach. Happy to be on the ground!

Its my turn again tomorrow, asymmetric flight (that's where one engine has failed or is shut-down). Can't wait.