PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - TXL to be closed "temporarily" on June 15th – is that good-bye EDDT?
Old 20th May 2020, 21:42
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Airbubba
 
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Rockytop, Tennessee, USA
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A Tegel incident a little before my time but I later knew and/or flew with every one of the players. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

And I recently corresponded with an TXL flight ops office worker who was also onboard. She said the trainee at the controls was somewhat less arrogant after the episode when he came in to file his hypo tax paperwork.

Originally Posted by Airbubba
Now, this is no s**t. Or, should I say, once upon a time...

Three [and a half] decades ago a U.S. airline was doing a captain's rating ride in a steam driven 737 in Berlin. The instructor was the head 737 check airman and the FAA was on the jumpseat observing. Due to the restricted Cold War airspace the required airwork was done in a tight pattern near TXL. A reject, a V1 cut and some bounces back at Tegel went well and the crew set up for the traditional no-flap full stop landing to complete the ride.

The gear warning horn circuit breaker was pulled and the trap was set.

They forgot to lower the gear as the check airman pointed out how difficult it was to decelerate on path in the low drag flapless configuration even with idle thrust.

The PF in the left seat realized in the flare that the already nose high picture was settling too low and pushed the power up just as things started to scrape. Hydraulic components were torn off the bottoms of the JT-8D engine nacelles and they did a manual reversion missed approach. And manual gear extension followed by landing with pneumatic braking.

The FAA guy was a furloughee from the airline so the incident was handled locally with discretion in the pre-social media era to protect the careers of all concerned.

Years later I worked with the PF's training partner, Dale C., who was riding back in the cabin during the gear up touch and go. He was of the opinion that there was little deceleration during the runway contact and if they had not gone flying again they would have ended up in a fireball in the congested area east of the runway.
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