We also had a gear up landing the day before that discussion. The pilot got
low south of the field and was preparing to land on RWY 36. He got a small
thermal which boosted him to 300' AGL and decided to extend to base for RWY
26. He told me he was thinking "Oh Boy! This is gonna be my best landing
ever!", and then hearing a scraping sound...

I have watched two incidents of ASW15s ground effect flying across the
airfield with brakes shut and wheel going up and down. Quite amazing
performance!

An ASW15 pilot I once knew used to place a rubber band around the brake
handle. When he deployed the brake he thought "what's that rubber band
doing on the handle" and it reminded him to put the wheel down! A bit like
tying a knot in your tie.

1) Every place at which I've ever taken instruction or "BFR" (a U.S. thing)
has taught the "visual spoiler check" as part of the pattern checklist, so I
kinda hoped it was "the standard" throughout the U.S. (a country of
unrepentant individualists). Evidently not?

2) Having heard it was possible (as in people had done it already) to confuse
handles (e.g. typically, gear for spoilers), I believed; the proposition
seemed plausible. Upon crossing over to the dark side of large-deflection
landing flaps instead of spoilers, I still believed it was plausible, but
another part of my brain simultaneously concluded it was unlikely, given the
"unmistakably differing" effects of flap vs. spoiler deployment. Nonetheless,
I seem to remember a retractable-gear 1-35 crunch that *may* have involved
handle confusion, despite the 1-35's "unmistakably/ergonomically conflicting"
flap/gear handles/actuation. If it happens it must be possible has long been
one of my personal maxims. :-)

3) The gear-up scenario above may well be THE number one reason for glider
gear-ups, i.e. focus on "something else" to the detriment of Joe Pilot's
routine procedures. The very first time I "stretched a glide" back to the
pattern in a retractable gear glider, about the time I concluded I was "good
for at least a straight-in" I also ran my pattern checklist (at ~300' agl).
Yup. I'd completely forgotten about the gear to that point. Talk about shock
and alarm!

Points being, those simple things your instructor (so it's hoped) taught you
about checklists and verifying one's actions, aren't only based on others'
prior mistakes, but they *work!*

Bob - no gear-ups or handle confusions yet - W.