On Jul 31, 8:21*pm, Mike Ash wrote:
In article
,

*a wrote:
In how many places does your pre-landing checklist say 'check gear
down'? My first time is at the OM inbound or passing the numbers
downwind, and my last time is in the flare! There's no way to know for
sure, but I suspect a lot of gear up landings happen after someone
aborts a landing and flies a tight pattern: a break in the routine.

Of the three gear-up landings I've personally witnessed, at least two
would not have been saved by this. The pilots in both cases believed
fervently that the gear was *already* down, after having failed to
retract the gear beforehand, and then moved the lever to pull the gear
UP as part of their landing checklist. I don't know the circumstances
surrounding the third so I don't know if it also qualifies here or not.

I'm not saying that your multiple checks are bad or anything, in fact
they make a lot of sense to me, but I wonder at how you might also
prevent the "putting it down twice" accident.

--
Mike Ash
Radio Free Earth
Broadcasting from our climate-controlled studios deep inside the Moon

For what it's worth, I learned something back when cars had manual
transmissions. I was taught to never hold the shifter, but to move it
or 'slap' it in the right direction with an an open hand. On my
Mooney, the gear switch looks like a wheel, it would be easy to grasp
it -- I never do. Down means pushing it down with my finger tips, , up
means lifting it up with them.

So far it's worked, but there's always tomorrow!