So I was in Boston this week with my hockey team and I got a call from my boss who needed to be in the city for a meeting. I met him at Logan Intl this morning and he gave me the keys to the company plane. It's a 1987 Cessna Citation II. I much prefer the newer Citation's but I was getting paid Overtime so I didn't give much of a fuss.
We took off just as the sun started to rise. I made a deal with my boss that he could take off 5 bucks from my pay if he took some photos for me with my digital camera. He obliged-- cheap bastard.
We levelled off at FL255 and I just relaxed while my boss made a bunch of phone calls. We were on schedule. The sun started to brighten up the horizon.
After a little under 30 minutes we passed JFK and the Air Traffic Controller guided us to our approach. In a slight mistake in judgment, he sent us right through the fina;l approach path of the heavies landing there. Maybe they should've assigned us a different landing runway at LaGuardia to avoid this. The turbulence was heavy and I had a really hard time keeping her level. My boss didn't seem to care much.
About 4 miles out I dropped the landing gear and something just didn't "feel" right. There was no error reported by my instrument but the sounds weren't the same. I decided to call in a possible emergency, just in case. I came in a little high but it wasn't terrible. I'm getting nervous...
At about 25 feet above the runway the win picked up and forced my Cessna into the pavement. I thought I had her under control, but the problem I thought I had on final came to fruition as the front wheel burst on impact and collapsed on itself.
I had a really hard time keeping her on the runway but I managed. My boss was fine except for the fact that he spilled his coffee on his business suit. The absence of my front wheel actually helped the plane slow down faster and I didn't roll more than 100 yards before I stopped. The thrust reverers had barely kicked in and I was at about 10 mph. I sat there in disbelief as the EMS and Fire trucks raced towards my plane. We were OK though, and I'm going to sue the hell out of my company for this. Hey, at least I can fly a newer plane from now on-- it's the only one we have left!
Hope you liked the pics.
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