Instructor Jason Messenger and his student were landing at New Smyrna Beach (Fla.) Airport last Friday morning, when they ran into a problem — the gear was down on their Cessna 172RG, but not locked. After an hour or so spent trying various fixes, they made a plan with the help of three airport workers to try hooking the errant gear into place from a speeding Jeep. “I had heard of it being done one time before and it seemed like a logical step to do at the time,” said Jeep driver Danny Perna. Perna sped down the runway as the Cessna flew above at about a dozen feet off the ground. On the fourth try, the two men in the back of the Jeep were able to hook the gear with a fireman’s pole. Messenger said, “I was in the right seat so I could look out the window and see them working on it, and we heard it click when they got it down.” The airplane landed safely. Nonetheless, “It’s not something, from a safety standpoint, we would promote under normal circumstances,” New Smyrna Beach spokesperson Shannon Lewis told WFTV.
