"Beech Three Niner Whiskey, Pick Up The Pieces, Taxi To Parking"

Flight student Graham Lawson did what a lot of us did as student pilots. He landed his Beech 23 a little hard. Then, out of necessity, Graham did what a lot of us never wanted to do. He landed his aircraft with major damage to the landing gear.

Lawson, a New York flight student, was trying to land on Runway 36 at Windham, CT, in gusty crosswinds. Pilot Victor Wozniack watched as Lawson's aircraft was blown laterally, almost completely off the runway. The right main gear snapped off in the dirt on the side of the strip. The right wing impacted the ground and was damaged before Lawson, 47, firewalled the throttle and took off again.

Now Lawson had a new set of problems on his hands. Instead of practicing routine landings, he was about to make his first emergency landing. And this was no drill.

As he circled at about 1,000 MSL, Lawson talked via radio with people on the ground and another pilot in the air.

"We told him the fire department was in place and that we were ready when he was," Philip Gaudette, an employee of Windham Aviation Inc., told the Hartford Courant. Windham Aviation operates the field and a flight school.

What else could Lawson do but practice, practice, practice? Finally, he lined up on Runway 27 and made his approach.

And executed a great landing.

"He did an incredible job. It was textbook," Gaudette told the Courant. "My heart was in my throat. That just shows that all the training you go through works."

Amen.

FAA Preliminary Accident Report

IDENTIFICATION
  Regis#: 2139W        Make/Model: BE23      Description: 23 MUSKETEER, SUNDOWNER
  Date: 12/05/2004     Time: 1700

  Event Type: Incident   Highest Injury: None     Mid Air: N    Missing: N
  Damage: Unknown

LOCATION
  City: WILLIMANTIC                 State: CT   Country: US

DESCRIPTION
  ACFT LANDED HARD ON RWY23 AT WINDHAM ARPT (IJD). STRONG WINDS BROKE OFF THE
  RIGHT MAIN GEAR AND ACFT BECAME AIRBORNE. ACFT LANDED RWY 27 WITH TWO
  REMAINING GEARS. WILLIMANTIC, CT

INJURY DATA      Total Fatal:   0
                 # Crew:   1     Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   
                 # Pass:    0     Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   
                 # Grnd:           Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   

WEATHER: NOT REPORTED                                                               
                                                                                    
OTHER DATA
  Activity: Unknown      Phase: Landing      Operation: General Aviation

  Departed: UNKN                        Dep Date:    Dep. Time:     
  Destination: UNKN                     Flt Plan: NONE         Wx Briefing: N
  Last Radio Cont: NA
  Last Clearance: NA

  FAA FSDO: WINDSOR LOCKS, CT  (NE03)             Entry date: 12/06/2004

FMI: www.ntsb.gov