(From the video poster)

"This video was shot on Dec 14th after a hydraulic line failure in our 404 Titan forced us to make an emergency landing with the gear up. The emergency blow down bottle had a valve malfunction as well so there was no option available from that point on other than to find a place to sit it down. At the end of the slide down the runway there was a small fire on-board which I extinguished before exiting the aircraft with my crew member closely on my six . I'd like to send my thanks out to my crew member, the engineers in Wichita and to the ground crew mechanics at Mountain Home Airport in Arkansas for their assistance in relaying the communications with the engineers at Cessna, and for their mechanical knowledge that they shared with us during this unusual situation we found ourselves in."

[youtube]http://youtu.be/myILKfQG364[/youtube]

There were alot more sparks than what seems normal but perhaps that's just due to the diminishing evening light. The cabin fire is puzzling too.

They should had let it burn ! It would probably never fly again.

Bad gear design, i like my manual gear extention.

Good job on the landing. I cringed watching the props hit the runway. I like the 400 series, but have no love for Cessna gear design. The 210 series is terrible also. If you lose a hydraulic hose the gear will not come down. I'm surprised you have pneumatic and hydraulic failure.

Good job on the landing and being quick with the fire extinguisher.

I'm going to double check my "gear up landing" checklist, make sure that is on there.

The other thing that this made me consider is;
If you are going to gear-up, would it be better to land on the grass rather than the runway?

Does the 404 use the same 'torque tube' design as the 310/340 ? The way I understand that Rube Goldberg contraption, if the tube snaps, the blowdown bottles won't have any effect.

Does the 404 use the same 'torque tube' design as the 310/340 ? The way I understand that Rube Goldberg contraption, if the tube snaps, the blowdown bottles won't have any effect.

I sure like those 400 Series wing lockers though

Mike

I'm in the camp that says go for a nice wide paved runway. Grass runways tend to be lumpier and if you manage to dig something into the ground the resulting force could flip the plane over or spin it around. I have wondered how things would work out if you landed in a foot or more of snow on top of level frozen ground.

Why'd they keep the engines running? Shouldn't they have killed them a few feet off the ground? Maybe they did and I couldn't tell.

Also, I'd have let her burn. That plane is worth nothing now.

Nice job getting it down safe!

Watching that makes my wallet hurt.

I'm in the camp that says go for a nice wide paved runway. Grass runways tend to be lumpier and if you manage to dig something into the ground the resulting force could flip the plane over or spin it around. I have wondered how things would work out if you landed in a foot or more of snow on top of level frozen ground.

Does the 404 use the same 'torque tube' design as the 310/340 ? The way I understand that Rube Goldberg contraption, if the tube snaps, the blowdown bottles won't have any effect.

The 404 utilizes a hydraulic landing gear system.

As far as the 310/340 system (which is similar to the 320/401/402a&b/414/421a&b)
uses an electric/mechanical gear system similar to the Beech. No "blowdown" bottles, for manual extension they use a crank on the gear box (like Beech).

I could not help but wonder why they did not feather the props? Is it because they are 3 bladed and thus you would hit one on the runway? I guess with a 2 bladed prob you could at least bumb the starter to get the prop to a 9:15 position and thus try to avoid prop damage. Also why not switch the engines off once landing was assured. That way even if the prop hit you could mitigate the damage to the engines and hopefully only need a tear down inspection. Just curious.