Plane Makes Emergency Landing On Oxnard Beach
 

(AP) OXNARD, Calif. A vintage military trainer aircraft made an emergency landing on Oxnard's Mandalay Beach Tuesday, skidding on
its belly to a halt near the surf.

A fire spokeswoman says two people aboard the propeller-driven T-28 were not hurt.

The aircraft, painted with Navy markings, set down about three miles from Oxnard Airport.

The airport operations officer says two T-28s were headed there but only one made it. The other one reported a problem before landing on the beach.

The airfield manager says the two aircraft belong to a company based at nearby Camarillo Airport.

Federal Aviation Administration investigators are interviewing the pair to determine what happened.
the story with video

Looks like they will need some engine work, new prop and some tin for the bottom. At least they are alive and the plane stopped short of the water.

Dave

The old Trojan is a rugged airplane. If the pilot got it down on sand and no rocks then the repair should not be that bad.

At least the pilots were ok, we can buy new airplanes...

I used to fly(ride?) out of Van Nuys with a friend who was part of The Condor Squadron. I belive those are T-6s. Either way they are great planes. A ton of fun with a good pilot on the stick.

Kevin,

Most of them are T-6's but a few of the guys are now flying the Chinese trainers.

Both have radial engines on them and sound like an airplane should!

On special occasions, air shows, veterans day and such, the entire squadron would fly over my place in Angeles Crest at about 1000ft. The sound of a dozen of those planes flying over was incredible. Those radials have a sound all thier own.

The landing gear appears to be up. Would that mean hydraulic failure, or safer landing on sand, or preservation of the landging gear?

On beach sand, I would probably land gear up to prevent flipping over.

Can you imagine what it sounded like during WW2 when all those bombers and fighters were flying around?

Music to my ears!

DAEPP,

Depends on the situation leaving the gear up or down. If there is sand or loose soil there is a very real chance of the plane flipping on its back. There the pilots are trapped and if it catches fire you are dead, so landing it gear up is usually recommended. As well damage to the airframe is usually not that high.

We restored a couple T-6s and if I recall correctly there was a huge aluminum plate that was directly under the cabin. The theory was that beings as these were trainers it was installed as added protection for the pilot and trainee in the event of a belly landing. We removed this plate as it weighed around 300lbs. If the Trojan is at all similar then I'd hope he still had the added protection when setting it down gear up. Aside of the air frame I'd say the engine is going to need an inspection due to the propeller strike.

Kevin,

Its called out in the regs that anytime the engine has a "sudden stoppage" as its called. Notice the bent back prop blades? That shows that the engine was producing power when it landed, so will have to be inspected. At a minimum the prop shaft/crankshaft will have to be checked for runout and go from there.

In this case it appears that he had an oil line break or possibly an oil cooler burst from all the oil in the video.

Its best to set the plane down while you still have an engine to help you, but during the war they would have usually tried to fly the plane to the airport if possible then just thrown the engine away. During WW2 there were numerous accounts of planes having a oil line or cooler shot up and the plane flying for an hour or longer with no oil pressure getting back to base or over friendly territory. Key here is do not touch the throttle as once you start reducing power the engine usually siezed and then its time to play glider or jump. There were no ejection seats in the T-28.

Lots of engines available to the military and not so many pilots, so they are taught to save themselves first and not worry so much about the plane.

All very interesting - thank you!