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dawn with this heavy fog that can drop visibility to almost nothing. Taking off, barely able to see the runway centerline, almost always puts you into crystal clear blue skies by 1,000-2,000 feet. As the sun warms the air, usually the fog dissipates by midmorning, leaving lovely clear skies until the ground cools again after midnight.
One not-too-foggy morning, LJ-2 with its single pilot and a load of passengers taxied out for takeoff on their way to Los Angeles. A PSA (Pacific Southwest Airlines) Boeing 727 followed them out and held short of the runway as the King Air departed. “Uh, Fresno Tower, you may want to tell that King Air that his left main tire just fell off as he took off,” radioed the 727.
What the ... ?! Sure enough, the axle nut had come loose, worked itself off, and allowed the wheel assembly to roll right off the axle. (This design has been changed on later models to decrease the likelihood of this from happening.) LJ-2’s pilot received the bad news, canceled the plans to go to LAX, and circled near Fresno in the clear air above the fog. If I am not mistaken, he began crossfeeding fuel from the left tanks to both engines, thinking that having it as light as possible on the side of the main gear “stub” would help in keeping it straight after touchdown. Radio calls were made to the Beechcraft West maintenance department and they, in turn, ran the situation past the Beech support experts in Wichita, seeking any good ideas.
It was decided to land on Runway 29R at KFAT and LJ-2 requested that a section of the runway be foamed – covered with fire-suppression foam, a common procedure back then – in preparation for the landing. Since Fresno has only two parallel runways, 29L and 29R, and both were in use, the tower offered to foam the parallel Taxiway C, which was of equal length to 29R, over 9,000 feet long. The pilot of LJ-2 accepted that offer.
After circling for two or three hours, with the fog now totally gone, LJ-2 made its approach to the foamed portion of Taxiway C. The pilot later told me that his plan was to touch down as far as possible to the right side of the taxiway. In doing so, there would be more available space for the airplane to veer left as the drag of the brake rotor – sans wheel and tire – dug into the concrete. Furthermore, he planned to use Maximum Reverse immediately after touchdown to slow the airplane as quickly as possible.
This proceeded as planned. However, the drag of the left gear stub was so great that the airplane began drifting left and could not be corrected by right rudder and right brake usage. So the pilot began easing the left power lever out of reverse. Just about the time the airplane began rolling straight, the left main stub found the dirt beside the taxiway causing even more left-side drag. So more positive trust was added by pushing the left
16 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
NOVEMBER 2018