A local pilot had to make an emergency landing in his Cessna 421 Golden Eagle shortly after takeoff Friday morning at Hot Springs Memorial Field, when he discovered a problem with his nose landing gear.
Peter Corry said he was on his way to Tyler, Texas, and had just taken off when he got a hydraulic warning and discovered his front landing gear was stuck at a 45-degree angle and "would not come down."
"I figured I better start circling and went through all the emergency procedures," Corry said, noting there were two other pilots flying above him that were offering advice, but nothing worked. "The landing gear refused to come down."
Corry shut off the engine and the electricity to the twin-engine, six-seat light aircraft "and glided it in," Glen Barentine, airport director, said moments after the plane landed safely at 11:40 a.m.
"He did a great job. He kept the nose up as long as he could and rolled it in. He was able to save a lot of it. It could have been a lot worse," Barentine said, noting he might need some sheet metal work done as a result.
The plane could be seen sliding for several feet after the nose finally touched down, but Barentine noted, "He had slowed down considerably by the time the nose finally came down so he didn't have to slide that far.
"This is what they're trained for and he did it perfect."
Barentine said if he had tried to land in the grass instead of on the runway he risked hitting something on the uneven terrain so he did the right thing landing it as he did.
Hot Springs Fire Department, Hot Springs police and LifeNet personnel had arrived before Corry landed and were standing by near the runway where he landed, but there was no fire and Corry was not injured.
Local on 06/25/2016