CAMARILLO : Pilot Lands Safely After Gear Failure

A student pilot found out the hard way what it’s like to have his hands--and feet--full as he maneuvered his light plane to the Camarillo Airport Tarmac Sunday after his landing gear failed.

Robert Main, 26, of Santa Paula was completing a solo flight in his Comanche single-engine airplane at 4:57 p.m. and was preparing to land to meet his flight instructor for practice when he discovered that the craft’s landing gear would not lower and lock into position.

What followed was an hour of flying over the airport trying to manually release the gear as a helicopter crew from the Ventura County Fire Department flew behind him, trying to determine if the landing gear was operable, Main said.

“I had already disengaged the electronic motor for the landing gear, but it wouldn’t stay locked,” Main said. “I decided I could keep it locked with the foot pedal, so I controlled the two rudder pedals with my left foot, the landing gear with my right and the wheel, throttle, propeller and hand brake with my two hands.”

He landed the airplane safely, said his flight instructor, Bill Wilson of Thousand Oaks, who was communicating with Main from the airport tower.

“He made the best landing in his life,” Wilson said.

Main said he never considered that he might crash, even though a fire engine and ambulance were waiting at the end of the runway.

“I was concentrating on flying the airplane and thinking of ways to bring it down safely. I was shaking a little when it was all over, but it’s not going to keep me from flying again,” he said.

Main was unhurt. The airplane will be examined by a mechanic.