Exciting morning

[stocky]

I had an early flight home from San Antonio through Dallas. I was going to land at Springfield, Mo at 9:55am and the sales barn is 5 minutes from the airport, so I was going to be there when they normally sell their take home cows.
About 10 minutes after we took off from Dallas, the pilot said there is a problem with the landing gear, we are going to turn around and land at Dallas. Don't be concerned about all the emergency vehicles and flashing lights alongside the runway, they are just there for precautions. It seemed that we were headed for an isolated emergency runway and there were flashing lights everywhere from the firetrucks, ambulances, and emergency vehicles. As we got close, we were told to get in brace postion and hold it until we got on the runway. We hit hard, but the landing gear did not collapse and we made it back to the gate, where the plane was surrounded by firemen in fire retardant suits, looking over the plane.
We got back into the terminal, they got us another plane and we were only 3 1/3 hours late, so I missed the sale. With all the emergency personnel, I think there was more of a chance of bad news than we were led to believe. Landed safe, but missed the sale. There will be plenty more sales.

 

[Ryder]

Probably just precautionary like they said. Of course you never know with possible malfunctioning landing gear.
I was in that same situation once in a small single engine plane. They asked if we wanted the emergency stuff out. YES.
False alarm. Just a repeated bumping noise after touch down.
They have the trucks, the firesuits, and equipment there. I figure they need to get it out every now and then for practice anyway.

 

[Jogeephus]

Glad all went well. Actually heard this on the radio. I can only imagine your anxiety.

 

[hillbilly beef man]

A good landing is one that you walk away from, a great landing is one that the plane is re-useable afterwards. It sounds like you had a good landing.

 

[TexasBred]

Only time I ever got nervous on a plane was last year landing in Frankfurt, Germany. Was probably not 30 feet above the runway and the pilot gave full power to all engine on that big 747 and pulled her back up.....I just about shyt down both legs. Seems we had a strong cross wind and alarm went off in the cabin telling him to abort. Made I nice slow climb and circle and then landed like a feather. I floated my lilly white a$$ straight over to the bar for a while. :shock: :shock:

 

[J&D Cattle]

I hate flying! I'm to nervous, don't like sitting in a little tunnel, and just don't like it. I always have to get up and pi$$ about 100 times. You'd think I was 80 instead of 32. Got a trip to FL and WA next year with whole fam. Kids are 6 and 4 now and have never flown. I'm thinking of getting some kind of drugs.

 

[Dave]

I have flown into Ketchikan Alaska a bunch of times. The town is long and narrow set between the water and a steep mountain. The airport is on another island and you come in parallel to town. One time I was coming in on a clear day. I was looking at town and I was thinking we sure are high for this part of town. Well we dropped pretty quick and hit hard. All of the engines in reverse and it sounded like they were standing on the brakes. When we finally stopped we just sat there for a long time. When they finally turned the plane around to go back to the terminal I was faced to the end of the runway. The end was right there, just feet away. The front wheels on the jet couldn't have been 10 feet from the edge. So close that I am sure that from the view out of the cockpit the pilots thought they were out of runway. About 60 feet down a steep slope over some big nasty rocks is the ocean. I am pretty sure that the long pause after we stopped was the pilots cleaning out their underwear.

 

[john250]

Cincinnati/NKY airport. Touching down and the pilot guns the engines and we go back around to try again. It was a foggy/icy night and you couldn't see anything outside the windows.
Landing at IND and a friend in baggage claim says he overheard the pilot and co-pilot say: You ever see anything Ice Up that fast?

 

[stocky]

Glad everyone is still around to tell about their "close calls". In the plane, we pretty much figured it was just overly precautious, and probably was. It was when they circled the plane and were so attentive and the made it very clear, very quickly that we would not be using that plane, again, that it sunk in that it could have been serious.
I was alot more nervous trying to figure out the chaotic road system on 410 on from the airport to the ball park in San Antonio. Constant U-turns, frequent exits off 410 that demand crossing 3 lanes each time a car exits, so it bottlenecks everything. I have never seen a highway system like that and I had more close calls from people flying off 410 and almost hitting people trying to cross 3 lanes to turn into a store than I have in all the miles I have flown.
It had been 31 years since I had been to San Antonio and things have changed a bit.

 

[pdfangus]

flew inot Bristol Va one time years ago....little airport and they basicly just shaved the top off of a small mountain....
that itme it was socked in with low cloud cover....
we were coming down and when we broke thru the cloud cover and were not yet touched down.....
I looked out the window and we were parallel to the terminal.....
we dropped fast the rest of the way and the pilot hit the brakes so hard that the empty seat beside me flew forward like an old folding front seat in a coupe....
he got it stopped before we slid off the mountain but it was a rough landing....
was on a hop once between Denver and Coloraod springs and the turbulence was so bad that anyone not belted in was bumping their heads on the ceiling....I was sitting next to some Majors wife and she was hanging onto my left arm scared to death....after landing she thanked me and complimented me on my composure and then quietly complimented me on my arm as well....
I miss the days when I had muscles....

 

[denvermartinfarms]

You didn't miss much anyway, they had less than 300 head and very few take home cows.

 

[DavisBeefmasters]

Only time I ever got nervous on a plane was last year landing in Frankfurt, Germany. Was probably not 30 feet above the runway and the pilot gave full power to all engine on that big 747 and pulled her back up.....I just about shyt down both legs. Seems we had a strong cross wind and alarm went off in the cabin telling him to abort. Made I nice slow climb and circle and then landed like a feather. I floated my lilly white a$$ straight over to the bar for a while. :shock: :shock:

:nod: :nod: -- yep, yep... Flying from Montana into Denver - same thing EXCEPT a plane went on the cross runway underneath us, we were likely 100 feet apart when we were immediately over the top of them... some smart arse in the back of the plane hummed the Twilight Zone music and said something along the lines of "you just think you were going to land, but we're going to circle into eternity in the Twilight Zone"... :shock: