Tyrolean F70 question

[Guest glide_or_die]

Regards to the F70 that crash-landed at MUC recently (www.airdisaster.com) - is it a write/off? It did lose its gear. Sad to see this lovely little plane end her life like this. Amazing toughness of the design, and great pilotage. My regards.Toni

[Wolfko 0]

Hi,first of all it is an Austrian Airlines F70. Tyrolean Airways, which is also part of the same company is now called Austrian arrows (operated by Tyrolean). Austrian and Austrian arrows have a very similar design.I do not think the plane is a write/off. It was allready revored with the help of some airpumbs and was brought to a road nearby. They had to hurry, because the temperatures are currently rising and there was danger that the plane wil sink into the mud.It now stands on its main gear and on an inflateable matress. Now the wings will probably be disassembled and the plane brought to Munich airport in 3 pieces.The plane lost only its nose gear. The main gear was not extended during the emergency landing. The pilot stated, a belly landing was the best option for a landing on a snow covered field. He only lowered the nose gear as the plane developed a nose down attidude. The drag of the nose gear helped to keep the nose pitched up. Additionally the nose gear had a nice breaking effect once they were on the ground. IMHO this was very smart thinking of the pilot. Probably they practice this during their simulator sessions.Wolfgang