SonexBuilders.net

When I build mine I am putting roller blade wheels on the bottom.

John,

Now that the cat is out of the bag, time to make lemonade out of that lemon and add the incident to your web site as additional safety testing accomplished. Can also list in SubSonex features: No prop or engine damage when landing gear up. :-)

David A.

I want those retracts so I can fit them on my Sonex. A tri-gear retract Sonex with 30 gal wing tanks...the ultimate ride. :D

John Monnett wrote:...
of course, my HUGE ego.

Wouldn't worry about it too much, here's what Wikipedia has to say about this topic:

...
There are two types of pilots: Those that have landed gear up, and those that will.
...

Full article can be found here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belly_landing

What does the FAA do when someone who lands gear up?

My brother once ran a plane dry and had to land on a highway. He caught hell from the Feds for a while.

I have a bad feeling that the answer to your question Charlie would depend on which FAA investigator was assigned. As John pointed out, per the FAR's (NTSB 830) a gear up landing would be an incident so no immediate notification would be required. That being said, if a runway was closed down I'm sure there will be written reports filed for the airport authority. Hopefully the FSDO wouldn't really have a part in this.

An incident is only a big deal if we make it one ( including those who are not involved but need to know every little detail to satisfy their "interest"). At a controlled field when a runway is shut down for even a short period usually a report is filed and the FAA gets involved to some extent. In this recent incident the tower notified the FAA, the FAA called me and set up a visit at our facility. The inspectors came and were amazed at how little damage was on the belly of the jet. I discussed the new very positive gear warning system and they went away to complete their paperwork.
Over my many years of test flying new designs I have been involved in many "incidents" from flat tires to actual airframe damage for multitudes of reasons ( I could write a book). Some involved the FAA and some not. All have been learning experiences and lead to improvements in all over safety of those designs. This event was one of those learning experiences and turned out as I have stated, to be no big deal.
Some day, hopefully in the not to distant future, we will know what happened with Jeremy... nobody wants to know more than me! I am sure, since I rarely post to lists, that someone will have to have the...dumb last word. Have at it. ;)

Ouch,
John's not the only one to land a Subsonex on its belly.

http://www.durangoherald.com/article/20 ... 29521/-1/s

fastj22 wrote:Ouch,
John's not the only one to land a Subsonex on its belly.

http://www.durangoherald.com/article/20 ... 29521/-1/s

That's the same first customer-built SubSonex featured on the Sonex web page. Bummer. I hope it's repairable. Glad everyone is safe.

-Removed-