RE: Lost A Wheel in Mid air. How Do you Land?
I think every situation is different; the plane, pilot skills, field condition, weather, etc.. One thing for sure, there is no EASY method. Couple years back topped off the tank on my 30% Extra, taxied out, lined up and shot the throttle to it. It had no more gained 20 ft. altitude when a wheel came off. One thing in my favor was a generous headwind. I decided to land, full tank and all. My thought was a loaded plane may break some things, but an unloaded one could be prone to tumble and break more things. Lined up and started down, kept nose high to bleed off as much speed as possible and just before contact I flared it back a bit more to stall or thereabouts, and tapped ailerons to set it down on the good side first. It plopped on the ground, the nose went down, the tail went up but once it hit 70 degrees or so it came back down. Plane didn't cover more than a 3 feet or so of ground. Only damage was slight, a hairline crack in the LG box and a crack on the cowl. Prop, everything else was ok. Axle had broke. I'm kinda convinced the fuel weight kept it from going over. Heck, it may not have made any difference at all, but all things considered, got pretty lucky that day!