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power lever forward. The airplane was rolling at a very low speed and everyone was starting to breathe a sigh of relief, when the left main stub hit the concrete pad holding one of the taxiway lights. That impact ripped the gear strut out of the wheel well, the airplane collapsed onto the left wing, and the propeller bit into the dirt under significant positive trust. Obviously, the airplane suffered major damage. No one was injured so it was a successful emergency landing.
In hindsight, it is easy to suggest the following changes: First, go ahead and use runway 29R and take advantage of its width – about three times wider than Taxiway C. Foam? Forget it. It has been proven not to offer much protection anyway. Second, avoid immediate use of reverse. Reverse blanked out a lot of the airflow over the left wing, decreasing lift and causing the stub to dig into the concrete with greater force. Third, as the airplane slowed, if it could not be kept straight with right rudder and brake, then go ahead and use reverse as needed on the right side alone to keep it straight.
Would I or anyone else have thought of these techniques when faced with the problem in real time? I don’t know, but I suppose there is a good chance that we would not have the presence of mind to think it through completely. Perhaps this war story will be beneficial if it ever happens to you ... which I hope it never does!
As a side note: I just looked at the FAA Registry and LJ-2 is still registered, in the state of Washington. It appears she was repaired successfully. Long may she fly!
FA-5 ... RIP
I returned to the Beechcraft Training Center in 1984 to receive training and take the checkride to obtain my BE-300 type rating, the new King Air model that made its appearance that year. Back in those
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early days, obtaining the type rating on the 300 automatically earned you a BE-1900 type rating and vice versa. That was a nice loophole that has since been eliminated. One of the instructors had been there when I managed the training center and we had remained friends. I heard from him two interesting stories, one just funny and one rather sad. Let me relate both to you. First, the funny one.
As I have written in other articles and discussions, the choice of the letters that precede the serial numbers for various models of Beechcraft has always been a mystery. Why are V-tail Bonanzas “D” numbers? Why is “E” used for the 36 Bonanzas? Why LJ for 90s? Why B for 100s? BB for 200s? There must be someone who makes these choices and there must be reasons for the selection but I’ll be darned if I know who and what they are!
Over lunch one day, while we were undergoing the model 300 ground school before beginning the flight phase, my Beech instructor friend told me a secret. “Tom, we have finally decided why they chose FA as the letters for all 300s ... because they are so Fantastically Awesome!” Actually, “Fantastically” may not have been the word he used, but his word did start with an F.
Now for the sad story. The company who bought the fifth 300, FA-5, sent their pilot to the Beechcraft Training Center to get typed. The company was moving up from a model 200 and the pilot had lots of experience in that predecessor model. The training went well. On the last day before the type-rating checkride was scheduled, my friend was giving this student a final training session. As was typical, they had flown a few miles northwest of Beech Field and were training at Hutchinson Regional Airport (KHUT).
An ILS to Runway 13 was planned and briefed, with a circle to land on Runway 4 – the runway mostly into the wind. The instructor pulled the flap power circuit breaker before the
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