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A-26 Invader Landing, Nose Gear Collapse at Oshkosh

spokes2112

spokes2112

Charter Member
Actually it wasn't a collapse more so a failure. Was listening to the whole thing come about on LiveATC.net. The pilot reported only 2 greens on approach and did multiple low flybys for confirmation. After confirmation he went well north of the airport to diagnose/repair. He reported that during subsequent gear cycles there was "snapping & clunking" from the front gear, he also tried G maneuvers to unlock the stuck gear to no avail. A final declaration of an "Emergency" followed with souls on board ( 5, 2 forward, 3 aft), and 20 minutes of fuel remaining. At first he requested 18R for landing but winds were 300 @15G18, after a recommendation from North Tower he switched over to 36L. Tower requested that he loiter over Lake Winnebago while arrivals enqueue could come in and that he burn off fuel. From the video - Pilot did a fine job bringing her in & making sure all on board safely got off.

 
Sorry to see the aircraft damaged, but it is repairable. Glad that no one was killed or seriously injured.
 
Sad to see but those things can and will happen. Outstanding job by the crew to limit damage and injuries. Knock on wood, I have only trained for a nose gear failure in the sim (King Air).
 
Good thing they were able to land the plane safely. That one dude on the taxiway didn't even notice.
 
Perfect 3 point landing - they all got out and wobbled away - best case scenario for a bad situation. Well done lads.
 
Damage like that is completely repairable - it would take a whole heck of a lot more to consider the aircraft not worthy of repair. When it comes to these types of aircraft, just about any level of damage will be repaired/rebuilt to fly, unless the entire airframe is tweaked nose-to-tail and wingtip-to-wingtip - it just takes above all else, money. There are numerous guys/shops around the world that can now build any part in these types of aircraft brand-new - parts availability is no longer an issue, just motivation, time, and most of all money (due to the advancements in technology and skills at reproducing complex parts and assemblies, there are actually quite a number of restorations being done these days, that just 10, 20+ years ago were considered impossible). The way things like this work, is that if the owner has the funds and interest, he'll have the aircraft repaired and flying again, and if he doesn't have the funds or interest, the aircraft will end up going to someone else that does. Aircraft like these will remain or go to wherever the money and motivation is to support it.

Of course the immediate attention has been on the particular part of the nose gear that failed, and those involved with the aircraft will be communicating with the rest of the A-26 community to discuss their findings, as others may very well be affected (there was a strut in the main gear of the B-25 "Panchito" that failed several years back, resulting in the right landing gear collapsing as it was taxiing, and there ended up being a service bulletin posted for all B-25 operators to inspect those particular struts, which as I recall led to several B-25 operators having those particular struts replaced/improved). For those who hadn't been aware of this particular A-26, and the restoration efforts over the past few years, here is its Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/a26invaderllcc/?fref=ts
 
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