No Brakes.....sorta.
Yesterday was the first time that I have ever had the safe outcome of a landing come into question. Everything was normal right up until the nosegear touched the runway and the Capt. started to apply brakes. It was a bit of a hair raising experience. We touched down and started veering off to the right side of the runway, dangerously close to going off the side.
It was the Capts leg, so he was the one flying the plane. We were doing a visual approach to a short field (5,600ft) to pick up some cargo and fly it to Arkansas somewhere. Nothing about the approach or landing would have indicated that anything was out of the ordinary. During our taxi checks on departure both brake systems were operational and the Anti-Skid system tested normal on both my side and the Capts side. In the air while completing the before landing checklist, the Anti-Skid also tested normal again and all hydraulic indicators were showing good pressure. So as far as we were concerned, all systems were good to go and we could expect a normal landing. Boy, were we in for a surprise.
The weather at our destination was nice. Light crosswinds, good visibilities and a few clouds overhead. We were doing a visual approach to RWY 1. We touched down right around our ref speed and I deployed the airbrakes. Everything was normal until the Capt went to apply brakes. As soon as the nosegear hit the runway and the Capt hit the brakes, the plane started veering off to the right side of the runway. My first thought was "what the hell is this guy doing?" I thought he was getting blasted by a crosswind and was not correcting. But as soon as we started getting really far off centerline and I saw his left hand dive for the nosewheel steering tiller, I knew something was wrong. I took a quick glance at the Anti Skid lights to see if they were operating and noticed that the left light was not on. This meant one of two things, the anti skid system on the left side was not operating and we locked up the tires or that the brake was not operating. The way we were pulling to the right and the fact that we didn't hear any tire squeal or "pops" from blown tires meant that we were not getting any braking from the left braking system. The Capt had me get on the pedals to see if my brakes would work, same result, still pulled to the right. The nosewheel steering tiller was providing enough directional control that we got the aircraft back on centerline, but every time we applied brakes, only the right brake would work and we would pull to the right.
After chewing up the entire runway, we taxied off at the end and took a second to talk about what had happened. The Capt thought we blew a tire or possibly flat spotted one (that's where you skid the tire and wear down the tread till there is just a flat spot left), but I told him that I didn't think we did. As we were taxiing to the ramp, we crossed the runway we had just landed on and looked for skid marks. We did not see any that would have been created by us, nor did we see tire pieces laying around. We got on to the ramp and once we slowed down, we tested the Anti Skid system again, worked fine. I'm not a mechanic, but as far as I was concerned. More to follow, I'm off to Mexico again.....
It was the Capts leg, so he was the one flying the plane. We were doing a visual approach to a short field (5,600ft) to pick up some cargo and fly it to Arkansas somewhere. Nothing about the approach or landing would have indicated that anything was out of the ordinary. During our taxi checks on departure both brake systems were operational and the Anti-Skid system tested normal on both my side and the Capts side. In the air while completing the before landing checklist, the Anti-Skid also tested normal again and all hydraulic indicators were showing good pressure. So as far as we were concerned, all systems were good to go and we could expect a normal landing. Boy, were we in for a surprise.
The weather at our destination was nice. Light crosswinds, good visibilities and a few clouds overhead. We were doing a visual approach to RWY 1. We touched down right around our ref speed and I deployed the airbrakes. Everything was normal until the Capt went to apply brakes. As soon as the nosegear hit the runway and the Capt hit the brakes, the plane started veering off to the right side of the runway. My first thought was "what the hell is this guy doing?" I thought he was getting blasted by a crosswind and was not correcting. But as soon as we started getting really far off centerline and I saw his left hand dive for the nosewheel steering tiller, I knew something was wrong. I took a quick glance at the Anti Skid lights to see if they were operating and noticed that the left light was not on. This meant one of two things, the anti skid system on the left side was not operating and we locked up the tires or that the brake was not operating. The way we were pulling to the right and the fact that we didn't hear any tire squeal or "pops" from blown tires meant that we were not getting any braking from the left braking system. The Capt had me get on the pedals to see if my brakes would work, same result, still pulled to the right. The nosewheel steering tiller was providing enough directional control that we got the aircraft back on centerline, but every time we applied brakes, only the right brake would work and we would pull to the right.
After chewing up the entire runway, we taxied off at the end and took a second to talk about what had happened. The Capt thought we blew a tire or possibly flat spotted one (that's where you skid the tire and wear down the tread till there is just a flat spot left), but I told him that I didn't think we did. As we were taxiing to the ramp, we crossed the runway we had just landed on and looked for skid marks. We did not see any that would have been created by us, nor did we see tire pieces laying around. We got on to the ramp and once we slowed down, we tested the Anti Skid system again, worked fine. I'm not a mechanic, but as far as I was concerned. More to follow, I'm off to Mexico again.....
posted by Windsor at 11:03 AM
1 Comments:
i'm glad i don't know about these things until after you get a new plane that works!
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