T-34 Incident in Colorado...

[Warbirdnerd]

Glad no one was hurt.

Vintage Plane Skids Off Centennial Airport Runway
CENTENNIAL, Colo. (CBS4) ¯ A vintage aircraft veered off the runway Tuesday afternoon at Centennial Airport.

South Metro Fire said the pilot had a battery problem after takeoff. Officials said he turned around to land the plane and had to hand crank the landing gear. After landing, one side of the landing gear collapsed and the plane skidded off the runway.

The two people on board the plan were not hurt.

Found it here:
http://cbs4denver.com/local/vintage.air ... 52576.html

[Bill Greenwood]

I once had to crank the gear down in my T-34 because of a switch failure in the rear seat gear activator, a small short. It's best to climb well away from the airport and take your time, and as best you can make sure the gear locks down and the indicator comes on. In a Bonanza which has similar gear it, takes a lot of swings on the hand crank which is in the floor of the back seat, and it it the last revolution or two that locks the gear. There have been some glitches in Barons where the gear was down on landing and folded on roll out.

[corsair166b]

I remember riding in/flying in your T-34, Bill....brought it up to you at Aspen once with Bob Estock...fun plane....that guy in Longmont still got it?

Saw this T-34 on the news last night....glad the guy got it back to the airport and all is ok except for light damage to the p-lane...

Mark

[Robbie Stuart]

Bill, where most folks with Barons & Bonanzas get in trouble with the gear folding, is if the green light is out of rig, & they quit cranking when they see three greens, the gear may not be locked. Always keep turning till you can't turn no more. This is a item that should be closely checked at Annual or 100 hour. Also always check your hand crank after inspection in a Baron or Bonanza to be sure it did not get trapped under the spar cover when the airplane went back together. That handle should easy to access when the hat cover is pulled off, but it can get trapped under that plastic spar cover.
Robbie

[Bluedharma]

Ah crap.
Is this the same one I talked about in this thread?
http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=19524
Glad no one was hurt.

[n5151ts]

[Bill Greenwood]

Mark, my T-34 was bought a few years ago by guys based at Meadowlake, not Longmont. It passed the big spar inspection with no cracks or damage found. I have heard it is now owned by someone else and is based at Col Springs main airport. I don't know if it is flying, it may be that the next major spar inspection/repair may be due. It was N 874Z, G-285. It would be good solid airframe for anyone to bring up to first class. It still had the original panels, had not been turned into a Cirrus so would be good for someone who wants a simple easy to fly warbird and not a ad for avionic gadgets.
It sounds like Robbie knows his stuff, you should crank until it won't won't turn any more, then the gear is as down as it is going to get. The time that happened to me was coming back from Sun N Fun, making a fuel stop due to headwinds , found a closed runway, diverted to another, Terrell near Dallas, then had to go around when there were no green gear lights. I try to be careful and focused on gear when landing and it paid off. My other time was landing at Geneseo after the show.