Tsiu Super DC-3 Gear-up Landing in ANC

A TransNorthern Super DC-3 lost an engine on take-off from ANC yesterday and had to make an emergency landing at Merrill Field minutes later.  Landed on one engine,  but couldn’t get the gear down.  Standard DC-3’s like mine have uncovered retractable main gear that don’t fully go into the engine nacelles.  That means,  if you have to land gear-up,  the wheels protrude below the plane enough and freely spin to prevent damage to the underside of the plane.  And you’d usually land power-on,  so you eat the tips of the props as they grind into the pavement,  preventing damage to the engines.

A Super-converted DC-3 has bigger engines and gear doors over the retracted mains.  From the photos,  it still looks like the plane wasn’t damaged badly and may really only need engine teardowns and new props.  But I don’t know…  Here is a good write-up with video of the radio transmissions and the actual landing at Merrill.  No one was hurt and the plane looks good too.  There is a reason (many actually) that DC=3’s are usually #1 on the greatest aircraft design list…

http://www.kathrynsreport.com/2021/12/douglas-r4d-8-super-dc-3-n28tn-incident.html