Landed in a grasy meadow last week, on takeoff ran over what appeared to be a shed mulie antler.
Saw it at the last minute, felt it, thought for sure it punctured my 31" ABW. I watched the tire spin to a stop
and couldn't see obvious damage. The fact that the tires change shape considerably when deflated assured me the tire was still holding air.

On the way home I was consumed with thoughts of what if....

How would YOU land it?

Slooooow and gentle, and plan on a turn towards the flat tire if it's a main.
For nosewheels or tail, just wheelie to your parking spot and don't let them drop until you're done moving.


And in cars, it always amazes me that when I get a flat tire it's all I can do to limp to a stop off onto the shoulder. Yet when I was a cop, I'd watch people run for miles at 100 MPH on red hot rims no problem.

Gump

While a little different, the guy flying a 602 Air Tractor landed wiith a left main flat. When I got to the airport that morning, I wondered what the parade of vehicles on the runway was all about as the AT was sitting smack in the middle of the runway about half way down. The tire had just been reinflated and he taxiied to the ramp. Evidently no big deal.

I have been asked this question several times since I started flying on ABWs. I can finally answer it somewhat accurately since I got dealt the experience just a couple weeks ago on 31"s in an M5.

The tricky part to my situation was that I didn't know the tire was flat until I was already on the ground. So although it was a surprise at first, it still was't much of an event. It was the right main and the plane just wanted to drift right. Even though it pulled enough to overpower counter rudder/brake inputs to keep it on the runway, I could still keep the plane going somewhat straight and never got close to looping or going completely out of control. It just drifted off the edge of the runway as I was slowing it down. I got stopped probably 10' laterally off of the runway edge, but still pointed runway heading. This happened on a 20' wide gravel strip. So on a larger runway the whole thing would have happened inside the lines. However, if the wheat field that happened to be on my right would have been trees instead, it could have turned out differently.

I think that if you know it is flat before you land, good stick and rudder can keep the flat tire off of the ground (and going straight down the runway) until the wing won't hold it up any longer. When you do have to put weight on it you will be slow enough to stop in a short distance without a rodeo.

That's just what I experienced on 31"s. I'm on 35"s now, so I have the same question to answer with them.

One nice thing about having my Airstreaks down to 2.5 psi, is if I do have a flat, it wouldn't be that big of a change? Not true I know, but sort of, maybe. How about a way to poke a hole in the good tire, while still airborne, that at least would take away the turning to the flat tire tendency, let us know how that works out....

I did have a mid air flat in what were at the time, '88, big bush tires on a Kitfox, I was landing at Hood River, on pavement and all I remember was a minor pull to the flat side, easily correctable, and an even shorter lander then normal.

Hey Gump, what I want know is how do all those bozo's on the COPS show manage to not only drive forever on no tires, but then after tremendous crashes still be in good enough shape to sprint like Olympians? No seat belts worn either!

courierguy wrote: Hey Gump, what I want know is how do all those bozo's on the COPS show manage to not only drive forever on no tires, but then after tremendous crashes still be in good enough shape to sprint like Olympians? No seat belts worn either!

Because they're like cockroaches. Too stupid, and high on meth, to kill. And too stupid to know they're missing parts.

Gump

GumpAir wrote:

And in cars, it always amazes me that when I get a flat tire it's all I can do to limp to a stop off onto the shoulder. Yet when I was a cop, I'd watch people run for miles at 100 MPH on red hot rims no problem.

Gump

Caution.... Another Pat Thread Drift:

I was headed south on I-15 through St George on hot summer day and a trailer tire blew on the rig. I stopped about 1/2 down the road on the shoulder and was trying to figure out what to do (it was late on a Sunday). As I sit trying to find a road service to come change the tire, I see a couple of state troopers, an ambulance, a fire truck and a sheriff code red northbound and stopping about where the tire blew. I thought "Oh Shit, I might have cause a wreck". But, I couldn't see back up the road clearly. About a few minutes later, one of the state troopers rolled up behind me and approached me to ask if I blew a tire back about a half mile. I said "Yes, I hope I didn't cause an accident!". Well, I didn't. But somebody in one of the houses along the highway heard the load "BANG" and thought there was an accident. I was relieved that there actually wasn't accident. And luckily the state trooper knew of a tire repair shop at the next exit.

Thanks RWM for the first hand info. On a maule no less

While we're thread drifting:
I was flying up the Owens valley this spring, stopped for fuel in Lone Pine and an old timer
wandered over and mused over the bushwheels for a moment then, after asking if they would float the plane on water, launched into a story about an outfit that was experimenting with Hypalon inflatable aircraft floats years ago.

Guess during R&D phase one popped at altitude. Sure that gave the pilot something to think about on the way down.

Got ME thinking too.... I had anticipated a lot of pavement landings on my cross country so aired up to 15 psi.
(home field 700') Checked them at 7500, they were 18 psi.

So...whats happening with your bush wheels at 12000' ?

If you fill your tires at sealevel, they will have about 5 psi higher pressure at 12,000 ft. It doesn't matter what tire, or what pressure you start with, it will go up by about 5 psi.

I blew a tire on my Avid on touchdown once when the tire slipped on the rim and it snapped the valve stem off. This was with my old wheel set up. I almost kept it on the runway but same thing as the others it was just a slow pulling to that side. Wasn't that big of a deal. The worst part of the whole thing was we were flying Young Eagles that day and I had 5 guys holding over the field until I could run to the hangar and crab a car dolly to throw under the wheel and push it over to the taxiway. Whole event was over in less than 10 minutes but the WHOLE usual airport crowd knew about it vs any other time I would have been all alone out there.

I had a flat tire with my M5-235 and 31" ABW, I landed on a grass runway and had no problem keeping it centered down the runway. Might have been different on asphalt.

"Flat" is not much harder than you guys run 'em anyway!

Mauleguy,

How much air are you running when out goofing around in rocky terrain?