"Landing Gear's NOT going Down!? For Real!" Beech 18 - Multi Engine Flight Training VLOG 

"I'm perfectly comfortable in any emergency aircraft situation," she says with a parachute strapped to her back ;)

Y'all left out a very important step in the emergency gear extension and you got lucky. I am currently repairing a D18S that had a gear collapse after landing where the pilot followed the same incomplete procedure as y'all and did not get lucky. The flight manual clearly states that you need to finish cranking after the gear free-falls. It falls down vertical but you must crank it "over-center". You seem surprised by that. But the real one you missed is AFTER you get the green you have to rock the crank handle back and forth until the clutch pedal come all the way back up. That means that the dog clutch has reengaged and will prevent a gear collapse. That is also in the flight manual. Miss that step and you are relying on luck.

Bad things will happen, don’t panic, remember your training, and execute. Great video!

"I am confident in any emergency aircraft situation" . Says the person with the parachute.

Wife leans over my shoulder and says.. " since when do you watch flying videos?".... I say.. " since I found Flight Chops!"

Kudos to Dan. He knows that plane inside and out. Dude was completely calm under pressure. He would be one helluva flight instructor.

The one & only time I got a ride along in a 1946 Beech 18 (N187R) was in my student pilot days back in the 90's. We were on our way back to Honolulu when the right engine seized up just as we were leveling off at 3,500'. Luckily we were empty & after feathering it, the pilot looks at me & asks "what do you think?" It was about 50 miles back to Honolulu and there was a small airport just a few miles on our right. I remembered his emergency briefing when we left HNL, consisting of "the hatchet is located behind the seat" when I responded with "I didn't bring any swim gear". "Good enough for me" he said & we landed at the closer airport in Molokai. It definitely was a very memorable experience sitting between those two Pratt & Whitneys and then, to top it off, seeing the propeller blade on my side come to a dead stop for real.

I love all of the mechanics in these old planes. The fact that you can engage the gear by hand (and foot) is awesome to think about. The people who had to imagine and design the various components, linkages, and controls to enable you to manually control the plane while also implementing new electronic technologies if the day. It amazes me.

"your training mission is officially over"Oh sh!t!

What a unique situation. To be doing a training mission, have something like that go wrong, abandon the training mission, fix the problem, and then have a fully certified, comfortable, and suited-up sky diver who can double check that everything really does look green. Then get on the ground and be able to share it with everyone. Really great stuff.

I have countless skydives from Beech 18s, so I never really had to worry about the gear coming down. An absolutely awesome video and learning experience. Thanks for bringing back some great memories.

Great video and congratulations on getting your multi-engine certificate. Thumbs up on the emergency and have a very merry Christmas. Jim

I had a friend with a Beach 18 back in the 70s. Put new tires on the gear and over inflated them. All was good until once at altitude, the new tires swelled and would not deploy for gear down test. However, once near the ground they became free.

Cool as a cucumber.... good instructor. All involved were on point. Looked pretty textbook, and... what an awesome plane!

Those gremlins will get ya!

Amazing airplane, and great experience as it turned out! I remember my first time in an RG plane, The gear didn't go down fully as well and we spent the next 20 minutes trying to get to it to lock down. The pilot and owner was only worried that he would damage his prop on belly landing, as the wheels still stick out a bit when the gear is up so if you get the pitch exactly right you can still land it with no damage.

You know what, I've wanted to fly with you ever since I started following you, but blowing a Cub off the runway, having a main gear fail, losing an engine in a Seneca (okay, it WAS training), I just don't know any more, Steve! Ya kind of scare me! LOL I do have to admit though it's always a blast to ride along with you, SOMETHING is going to happen! I can't wait for the rest of this stuff, it's gonna be great!

I like this guy. No nonsense, streamlines everything, and expects you to fly it right. I'd fly with him.

The Beech 18 is my absolute _favorite_ aircraft. Such a joy to fly. Very smooth, yet responsive, and it gives the pilot 100% analog control over every single thing the aircraft is doing.

I was at Oshkosh watching the air show under the gold seal dc3 engine. It made my week to look behind me and see flight chops just kinda checkin out the airplane. Also the one of the gold seal guys gave me a shirt so that was neatlol.

The sound of that radial on takeoff

Thanks for the entertaining and educational video. I've never flown a Twin Beech and the details were complete and clear. I'm glad that it worked out for you. One of my teammates was telling me about his experience flying a Baron for his employer. He had the president of the company on board. As they were coming in to land at RDU (home base), he got a gear warning immediately upon selecting "Down" with a popped breaker. Resetting breaker and trying again just popped the breaker again. So he tells the boss, "OK, we'll crank the gear down by hand", so he engaged the hand crank that would not move even a fraction of an inch. Try everything again, no difference. Call the tower, breaks off the approach and flies off to a maneuvering area and runs through all the drills. Nothing makes any difference (I don't know if the Baron has a "free-fall" emerg release). His explanation (I'm not an A&P so I don't know - his explanation) is that a Baron has an electrical motor, that operates a set of gears and linkages to an actuating nut on a long drive screw; the manual emerg gear is a handle with linkages to the nut and screw. That long drive screw both moves the gear as it turns and also holds the gear in the "Up" position. There's only ONE system interaction that's common to both the retration and extension systems -- the nut -- and the nut on that airplane was cracked and jammed on the screw in the "Up" positiion. There was only one thing to do. Fly around, call the tower, burn off fuel for an hour or so, officially declare an emergency with the tower, line up on the longest runway, flare and pull the mixtures, land as easily as possible, and slide down the runway for what seemed like many minutes, all the while listening to the various bangs and pops and horrible scraping noises. It's good your Twin Beech adventure didn't work out like that. (PS I once was instructing at a field that had a glider operation and a skydive operation. The Beaver that the jump school was flying once got to about 2500 feet and all the skydivers came out of it. The Beaver landed and I asked the pilot what happened. He said "I was switching tanks and the engine sputtered a bit. Sky divers hate airplanes. At the second sputter, they were all out." ANother time, I was on downwind leg with a student in a glider as I watched the jump school's 206 take off. The pilot mishandled it and put the nose gear into soft ground at the end of the runway. I got to see about 7 sky divers legging it along the bottom of the wing about 2 tenths of a second after the tail settled into the dirt as the 206 flipped. They were getting away from that airplane, too.)

Good show! The "bad" lessons always seem to end up as the best lessons. Got my multi in a 63 twin comanche ...that thing was full of gremlins. Slow-flight training...had the left flap stuck down...*pucker*. Landing gear was a fairly regular issue. Had a main blow out on landing roll. On my commercial/multi cross country, had an engine failure when I switched to the tip tanks...*pucker*...switched back...*unpucker*...gear issue at 1st destination. Unpredicted IMC just after 2nd destination (got IFR). Most of the time, cycling the gear again would resolve the issue. On my check ride, gear issue again...this time I had to lower it by hand.

this channel is one of best on youtube

Fun to see the Beech 18 - my dad was a maintenance chief for a fleet of these at Naval Air Station Anacostia in Washington DC. They were used for desk-bound Naval aviators to keep up their flying status.

I believe that the actual genealogy of the King Air is as follows: Twin Beech begat the Queen Air begat the King Air. In 1958 Beech manufactured three airplanes: The Bonanza, The Twin Beech (which featured a 3 passenger across bench seat in front, and the venerable 18, which was called The Super 18.

That’s what you call a real pro. I am sure he must have been shitting bricks if he didn’t pull it off majestically in front of the cameras ‘cause his whole skydiving school and tourist attraction would have crumbled to pieces. This vid just made him more reliable, safer, and more respectable. Congrats.

Man ! My 2 favorite hobbies in the world in one video ! Flying and skydiving ! What I learned doing both is that when you get a failure, well you execute your emergency procedures just like you were taught. It is awesome to see some super experienced pilot handle the situation not just with the emergency procedure, but also with experience on how to actually check that all is good. One of your coolest videos !

Dan and I have same views on multi engine training; and ability to transfer the info in a simple way.and besides,I love round engines.has natural ability and I'm sure all his students pass on first attempt...part of the "juice" for me...

I just finished my multi training yesterday! I like the takeoff recovery he talked through better, it simplifies everything.

You have to be one of the luckiest people on Earth to fly these awesome, amazing, classic, beautiful, majestic aircraft. I would literally give my house away just to fly in the Beech 18 and DC-3. I hope you realize how lucky you're. I will probably never fly in any of these aircraft since I am battling lung cancer and from what my doctor said is I got a max of 3 to 5 months left on this Earth.

I loved this! The calm, professional handling of the real emergency was perfect. Unfortunately, I shared it with my wife, who isn't sold on going up with me yet... I may have shot myself in the foot.

There is a Beech 18 on display in a Northern Ontario town at their tourist info centre. I always thought it was a sad end for such a cool old plane. Nice to see there are a few still working for a living.

I was a Beech 18 freight doggie on contract to Emery Air Freight. When you have a schedule, you keep it. Had gear problems. Would shoot approaches knowing I had ineffective gear. No down. Flew anyway. All you have to do is gear lever down, hit clutch with heel, gear drops about 75%. You crank the rest until you get 3 green. No biggie. For up, lever up, crank it up as far as it will go. Over & Back. Wild Bill Callahan. Amazon. You'll learn a lot.

Many decades ago, my Dad had to belly land his Twin Beach when the landing gear motor smoked and locked up during gear up. Fortunately, the gear was just about completely retracted so damage was relatively minimal. Hand crank would not work because the motor had physically locked up

A close family member of mine used to fly these things on a regular basis working for the military. He said every time they took one up they had to make an emergency landing. After hearing about the beech 18, I thought it was funny that the guy starts off the conversation by saying "you're flying a Beech 18, are you gonna lose an engine today? Yeah. You are." and then have a landing gear failure.

I love the King Air, they are the Swiss Army knife of turbo props. I’ve got about 700 hours between the King Air C90A & a B100. I’m not even single-engine current/proficient now that I’m flying a Citation Mustang and CJ1. I can’t even remember the last time I’ve set “firewall power” now that I’ve been in the turbine world for awhile. I’m glad you’re enjoying the multi-engine training. You get spoiled with that extra safety net but it can get you into even more trouble if you don’t pay attention at low speeds and low altitudes.

Have been hoping you would fly an 18... my favorite plane. Two round motors, tail dragger, twin stabilizers... old school charm and the sound is fabulous. Hope to see more of this aircraft.

Man that was so cool! I've been fascinated with the Beech 18 since I was a kid. Learned some interesting things about the 18 in this video. Yes Mr. Murphy has a way of popping his head up when least expected.

the best part of your vids is that you find these guys that are absolute wizards with tons of experience flying all sorts of equipment. that is your usp. props to niko and stevo but youve got a great angle.

I was going to initially comment how you were at least told you were going to lose an engine this time. And then you were given an entirely different lesson altogether that neither yourself and Dan expected to go through. Great learning points all across!

DC-3 mosquito control for the Florida keys. My dad told me it all went well except for a few tv antennas that stuck up to high. Quite the experience flying them old birds

It only had to be a matter of time before the right circumstances came together, and it was caught on film. An actual aircraft emergency, and a fully prepared crew. This is the stuff of legend.

I remember Mickey Rooney and Buddy Hackett "flying" one of these things.🤜🤛

I have 7000 hours in piston and turbine BE18s ..and LOVE the plane - and love this video ;)

Outstanding. Some day you will be the one giving all those instructions with the same amount of confidence.

@1:45 This is what I love about Flight Chops, he just does whatever takes. Like that Coast Guard video with Steveo where Flight Chops just jumps right in that frigid water, no complaints.... and humble... I think my favorite line this year was in the carbon cub? for short take off and landings (edit or was it the tail dragger?) anyway, when he said "I've flown so many aircraft this year I no longer have a normal" haha that was great !

Always brings a smile to my face to see a content creator actually reading the comments. Great video, keep it up!

Wow, Steve. I mean, I know that your videos are super awesome, but this one - kudos, man. This was really exciting and I am really glad I could experience it with you - well, sort of.

Great video, super interesting to see the "secrets" of this old plane.

What a handful of airframe that Beech is . Awesome .

Another fun fact about the Beech 18 They are RATO capable. I doubt there are any rockets available but they mount on the upper side of the engine nacelle. I knew this old pilot that has used them and he had a funny story. Once installed they have a shelf life of 1 year after which it's a use it or pay to have new ones installed. My friend was flying one such equipped Beech18 and noted that the year on the RATO rockets were nearly up, SO, he made the decision to use them. so at rotation he pulled the handle to fire the rockets. Normally a RATO (now called JATO) takeoff is impressive This one even more so! Only one rocket fired the result was some immediate and slight, and by slight I mean MASSIVE asymmetrical thrust, Extreme yaw, full rudder to counter the extreme yaw, continued extreme yaw, wing high (remember this is during takeoff with NO ABORT OPTION cause you can't turn off a rocket), deviation from runway centerline, approaching treeline with rocky creek/gully beyond that, and all the while not knowing IF or WHEN the other rocket may fire. If I recall correctly the rockets have a 20 second burn time.

Excellent Video!!! Thanks again! Stuck gear, Engine out, Electrical failure, Brakes stuck on one main gear. (That will wake ya right up!) I see them as opportunities to reflect on my training and learn how to deal with things that happen in the normal course of doing what we love to do! As Steveo said Remember the training and execute! However this to shall train you! And it seems to really be effective when you have the fear of god inside you! Hours of boredom punctuated by moments of terror! Best teacher there is!

I'm surprised the skydiver lady didn't choose to depart the aircraft. "See y'all on the ground - good luck with that landing".

oh man, radials just sounds so awesome! I particularly love the cacophony of a radial start up :D

I would love to skydive out of a DC-3, or especially C-47. I would be so historic.

A quick pucker moment and then back to the business of handling the problem. Enjoyed the video and the training. I've always loved Beech 18s and this gives me more respect for those who fly them.

Also, I remember my first gear failure like it was yesterday even though it was probably over 5 years. I was ferrying a Piper Arrow all of 25-ish nautical miles. Only catch was it was only my 2nd flight in that model after my checkout and all my retractable gear time was in a C-172RG (Gutless Cutlass) and BE-76 Beechcraft Duchess. So, the major difference was the Cessna had an amber light that indicated up and locked whereas the Piper had an amber light that indicates the gear motor is running. So, in my lack of experience in that type the light was on the whole time and burned the motor out. I’m on a left base and I go and put the gear down, nothing. I called Tower to do a low approach because I wasn’t going to have time to troubleshoot 2 miles from the runway and they told me the gear appeared to be at about 45°. I call Unicom since my boss was there at the time to help me out since I only flew the airplane 1 other time & the front desk lady was more panicked than I was. I tried recycling the gear, high g maneuver, yaw, etc and it was definitely stuck. I eventually do the emergency gear extension and get the 3 green lights and do a low approach so Tower could verify. I come in and do the softest landing I could manage in the plane and it went off without a hitch. When I taxied in everybody’s nose was plastered on the glass to see what happened. My boss comes walking out and said “are you sure you had an issue because it sure didn’t sound like it on the radio.” I told him freaking out wasn’t going to help me at all. If you do have an emergency, fly the airplane and keep calm. Your passengers are going to notice if you are panicking and they will make your job so much more difficult.

At 9:40 when Dan recycled the landing gear handle the hole panel moved, as an A&P that worried me.

Dan is a phenomenal instructor - what a switched on guy.

Insanely jealous of all your adventures. A Beech 18 is very high on my bucket list of airplanes that I'd kill to fly.

Awesome educational video. Thank goodness for veteran in depth knowledge of the aircraft flight systems and controls. Heres hoping every beginning/novice pilot gets this message..."know your plane" inside and out. I might just save your life, the lives of your passengers and possibly innocent folks on the ground.

Every one of your videos, Steve, it's a refresher or a learning experience or just plain wowaeroplane for me. Thanks again!

I skydive at this DZ. Its so cool to have such a range of planes to jump out of. I hope to see you fly some more at skyranch!!!

First of all congrats for your rating! In my humble opinion, the way this emergency was handled and with the detailed footage you guys got, this is by far the best promo clip ever!

Don't know the guy's name but the trainer is so matter-of-fact. I love it. No BS.

As much as I can understand the attraction, and thrill, of flying these kinds of vintage aircraft, this incident is a good example of why there has to come a time when pilots say, "this plane is just too old to keep flying regularly, no matter how well it's been maintained." When we are talking about aircraft that are 50, 60, 70, 80+ years old, that is simply beyond the expected designed lifespan of the aircraft, and it should be retired to a museum, (or scrapyard). Nothing lasts forever, and everything has it's time...

Love your videos man. I'm 18 and I'm a flight maintenance student transitioning to flight, and I've learned a ton from watching your videos. I love the transparency of your videos and want to do something similar when I start flight training. Keep up the good work!!!

that´s an office with amazing view, Terry. I envy you!! See at 7:20

I really liked the four camera angles on takeoff. It's fun to see everything going on.

Know your aircraft. A valuable lesson. Glad it all worked out O.K. for you. Thanks.

As with most pilots, us oldsters on the North side of 70 anyway, I've always wanted to get checked out in a C47/DC-3.

Lol the lady in the back had a huge smile and total confidence in dan. The dude in the back was streaking his pants. And only dan would have known how to drop that gear on that plane. Turn on the breaker, off the motor? Crank the wha?

clap,clap,clap. Thanks for being bold enough to put this up.

The pilot, older gent, reminds me of a Capt I met when I was in the Marines. Late 80’s

I used to fly a Beech 18 all the time. I love these airplanes

I'm nothing more than a sim pilot at best, but looking at your videos makes me daydream towards the skies. I love the approach of charing all its glory, including lessons learned! Looking forward to seeing more of your flying! Thank you for sharing the adventures! Happy holidays from Norway :)

To me. Mr. Chops, one of the great things you get to do is fly soooo many different planes.

I would safe flying with Dan knowing he's got control of the plane.

Wow! That’s a pilot who knows what he is doing! Clever!

13:04 I assume the answer he was looking for was "Because I am wearing a parachute and it is ok if I fall out of the airplane."

Good video! Hopefully everyone watching realizes that things will go wrong, in all facets of life. It's how you recover that makes you who you are. Keep flying!!

Dan Gryder you are an amazing instructor and an awesome pilot. I am glad to know you and so proud for you that you provide so much to the aviation community! I just found this video tonight!!

Great video! You managed to capture a not so common occurrence (an emergency) and even well documented it. Great handling by both of you. I've heard of gear switches just going bad in flight before but never got to experience one because most of my experience is with fixed gear trikes. I just wanted to say your tail dragger and STOL videos made me realize what I was missing and what my passion in flying is about (I never found what just clicked in me until I watched your videos). Me and one of my best friends are now working on getting our licenses so we can go STOL flying, your videos making me realize just how doable it is. I was always afraid of the pressure but you helped make me realize that with practice, I can do it (short field landings were a bit nerve wracking for me in my early learning). Thanks!

Excellent video! Experience goes along way, and no matter what fly the airplane.

Love the Beech 18. I've priced them for a number of years. Hope to own one before 45 as my personal whip. 2000fpm...that's nice right there.

This video is wonderful for so many ways. I love how I keep learning a lot from your videos, alongside my own progression in aviation, for years. Thank you.

Super video, fantastic airplane and display of airmanship by the captain

Fun fact about the Beech 18 the Twin Otter has the exact same brake and wheel assemblies

I was amazed how intimidating flying the plane was my first lesson. No amount of sim time prepared me for the noise, sensation and vibration. Everything I thought I knew from flight sims went out the window the moment the engine started. XD

That would be terrifying! Way to go Steve! It's been a while and it's really refreshing to see some more good content. Thanks for everything you do, Steve!

Man, i can't believe you were so close to me and I didn't know it. My band has played parties in this hangar and our best band photo is in front of that Beech. Hope you enjoyed NW Arkansas and that you got to meet Wolf.

Love your videos, never a dull moment! Awesome to see the operations of those old birds, the mechanical workings of those planes are amazing. Keep up the good work.

Super cool to see someone so professional and experienced.

I saw a DC3 taxiing in Fort Pierce, FL on Tuesday. It it was so big compared to the little 172 I was in. It was awesome.

Nothing like a real problem to make a flight interesting!

What a badass Air force this man has.

"I'm perfectly comfortable in any emergency aircraft situation" said the lady in a helmet and parachute

You didn't miss any training you just didn't get the training you expected!