Maule Driver wrote:
snip
A corollary: "Whatever your method for remembering to get the gear
down,
remember no method is foolproof."
I think you hit the nail on the head. Rather than being fatalistic,
it's more of a warning that it can happen to anyone if their attention
is diverted at a critical moment.
snip
There's always SOMETHING that can screw up your short final planning
(e.g. bird strike, a streaker) and cause you to forget. If you
haven't
seen that SOMETHING yet, just keep living.
That's the key. I've seen gear-ups performed by retractable newbies
and 10,000+ hr. pilots. A combination of distractions at the right
time can sink the best of them. When I based at PHX, I once watched a
commercial 737 come down short final with the gear up. They were
coming back around for the second time after going around for traffic
on the runway. While on the go around, they reported a problem with an
engine indicator. It distracted them enough that they missed putting
the gear down. Fortunately, the tower caught it and let them know and
they went around again.
John Galban=====N4BQ (PA28-180)
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