In article ,
"John T" wrote:

wrote:

Most of the plane's damage was on the underbelly of the craft when
the landing gear failed to deploy, Riverside County Deputy Sheriff
Ryan Renick said.

So this genius compounded the problem of running out of fuel with
forgetting to retract his landing gear for the emergency landing...
Fortunately for him, Darwin's attempt to remove him from the
population pool failed.

Careful. Failing to retract the landing gear wouldn't have meant a grassy
belly.

Before nominating the pilot for near-Darwin awards, maybe it would be good
to wait for an investigation into the cause(s).


Yes -- but the described circumstances would probably call for an FAA
checkride. If he overflew the airport at 6000 feet and lost his engine
and couldn't make the airport, there is something radically wrong with
his technique. 10 to 1 he never practiced power off approaches.