Hazelton C310 Incident
 

Anyone remember or recall the Hazelton C310 incident where the nose leg didn't fully extend and the engineers decided to pull the leg forward by using a length of rope straddled between two cars..

In must have been in the late 1970's somewhere in country NSW.

Yes, I do, thank you! Remember it well as a matter of fact!

And ..............?

Dr :8

The incident was discussed over a few quiet ales during the week, however one of the attendees reckon it was all bull poo and was a Hazo myth and couldn't be realsitically achieved.
I can recall it being a big news items, but couldn't find anything the safety digest from that era.

Its on film
I believe a well known Kaptin prooner could tell you more

Yes, I believe it is!

Dr :8

I heard about it from one of Pay's old engineers, he reckoned it happened at Cudal.

Pay heard about it and when one of his aircraft (C310 or a Dove? Can't remember) had the same problem he tried the same trick.

Didn't work for Pay... If anyone knows Kenny Howard, he was Pay's pilot at the time :rolleyes: :ouch:

Cessna 310 incident
 

I thought the incident took place at either Orange or Cudal airport.

Tmb

Between two utes if memory serves...

It was a Fletcher that had lost a leg. The pilot was Scotty. I was in the truck with Pay and we couldn't get up enough knots to match the Fletcher's speed because the runway was wet.

If it were the same Scotty, he was pretty good at landing a Baron with no legs:rolleyes:

That was it! :ok:

I think it was a different Scotty you were thinking of tinpis.

When we couldn't match his speed, Pay gave it away and told Scotty to land on the wet grass verge which he did without inflicting any further damage to the aircraft.

Scotty got in the poo with DCA for not landing on the runway which was then I think deco which would have caused far more damage.

There were 2 such incidents at Hazelton....the first at Cudal circa 1971...was unsuccesful...the Aircraft was VH-RIX...The second event was resolved with better results and with the knowledge gained from the earlier incident...and this was achieved at Spring Hill Airport Orange...because the runway was longer allowing more time to position the rope weilding vehicles correctly....the Rego and the date of this later event escapes me as I had moved on at that stage.:hmm:

It did happen
 

It did happen, and I saw it on TV news at the time. The 310 landed ok with all three wheels locked down. Can't remember the details but I reckon some tv station will still have it in the archives somewhere.

Yes I can confirm it did happen. It was at Cudal as I remember it. I knew the pilot well and we had a chat about it not long after. It is his story though so I'll leave it there. The pilot was a very pleasant bloke with a good reputation which he maintained.

Hazelton rope trick!
 

There is good coverage of the second successful attempt at Orange Aiport in the Sydney Morning Herald for 28 January 1978 including photo coverage, one being of the pilot, Ewin Simpsoon being congratulated by Peter Hazelton. The article states an attempt do do a similar thing 3 years earlier by Max Hazelton at Cudal Airport was unsuccessful due to the short length of the runway.

Darwin awards contenders
 

Incredibly dangerous.

What ground speed was the C310 doing? 80 knots into a bit of a head wind?

That's about 150 km/hr.

For those in the back of the utes, whose task it was to manage the rope, this must have been incredibly dangerous. I nominate those individuals for the Darwin awards.

Why did the PIC allow such lunacy? What about the laws that must have been broken? (Reckless/dangerous driving of the motor vehicles, and with respect to the aircraft: illegal maintenance!)

Was any attempt made to prosecute the individuals involved? To discourage others from what seems to be portrayed here and in the media as heroism, there should have been prosecutions.

FGD
 

You can't apply the mentality of today's "Nanny-state" to the 1970's or even the 80's.

We all know you'd get shot for it now. :ouch:

Hazo's photo board
 

In one of the hallways of the Hazo's offices at Cudal they had a montage of photos from all their years of operation. This included a sequence of photos of the infamous rope trick. It also had a copy of the newspaper article mentioned by a previous poster. Some real classic photos. Definately NOT an urban myth.