Originally Posted by Marvin (Post 845507)

In addition to the points made by others:

1. You normally would not want to retract landing gear after a tire failure -- the old saying goes, "A down gear is a happy gear" :)

2. You normally would not want to retract the flaps after a tire failure since some of the rubber could have been thrown into the flap mechanism, causing potential damage or jamming, and finally,

3. Due to the above stated reasons, they would not have had sufficient fuel anyway for a flight from ATL to Portland with gear and flaps extended.

I don't know what flap setting they landed with, but I suspect they extended the flaps incrementally to minimize control issues in the event that any flaps were damaged or jammed.

Originally Posted by FlyingDawg (Post 845526)

What if later in the flight they were to have another problem, maybe unextendable flaps or a single engine approach, now you have two problems to deal with. Why not limit it to one on your own terms?

Originally Posted by sailingfun (Post 845532)

The 737NG does not use gear doors. The tires fit very tightly in the gear wells to reduce drag. Any damage to the tire could jam the gear in the well. To prevent this there is a pin that would be hit by a blown or damage tire. It prevents that gear from retracting into the gear well and it free falls back down. It would be a long flight to PDX with one gear hanging down.

Originally Posted by sailingfun (Post 845532)

The 737NG does not use gear doors. The tires fit very tightly in the gear wells to reduce drag. Any damage to the tire could jam the gear in the well. To prevent this there is a pin that would be hit by a blown or damage tire. It prevents that gear from retracting into the gear well and it free falls back down. It would be a long flight to PDX with one gear hanging down.

Originally Posted by Scoop (Post 845754)

Sailing, Sailing, Sailing,

My dear man - you must be a 777 pilot, or something similarly impressive - but surely not a lowly 737 pilot. The pin as you so cavalierly called it, is actually a "frangible fitting" which protrudes next to where the gear retracts. Theory being, a damaged tire will break the fitting, which will bleed out hydraulic fluid, causing the gear to free-fall, if it where indeed, in the retraction process. If the gear was down - same result, you cannot raise it, due to no hydraulic fluid in the "gear-up" lines.

Scoop - Lowly 737 Pilot :)

Originally Posted by reddog25 (Post 845789)

I heard from a friend of a training Captain who said on the 320 if you blow a tire the computers will over-rule the pilot and prevent him from exceeding a 75 mile radius of the departure airport:cool:

Originally Posted by III Corps (Post 845905)

Its actually 75KM but there is an +/- factor in the limit. At 78.5KM the autoflight takes over and announces, "Je l'ai vous imbécile stupide. Je suis le capitaine maintenant and je débarquerai l'avion." which roughly translates to "I have it you stupid imbecile. I am the captain now and I will land the airplane."

Originally Posted by Gearjerk (Post 845912)

They could possibly think of installing that same safety feature in the FMS? To recognize, and then alert the crew, when overflying the destination airport? :rolleyes:

GJ

Originally Posted by Gearjerk (Post 845912)

They could possibly think of installing that same safety feature in the FMS? To recognize, and then alert the crew, when overflying the destination airport? :rolleyes:

GJ

Originally Posted by Gearjerk (Post 845912)

They could possibly think of installing that same safety feature in the FMS? To recognize, and then alert the crew, when overflying the destination airport? :rolleyes:

GJ