On Saturday, October 22, 2016 at 6:49:38 PM UTC+3, kirk.stant wrote:
On Saturday, October 22, 2016 at 9:56:15 AM UTC-5, Dan Marotta wrote:
Wish I could have helped.

But don't fly with your gear down - you may just retract it in the
pattern before landing then. In the Air Force it was mandatory to give
a gear check call over the radio to receive landing clearance. Get into
the habit of using a written checklist which includes a gear check and
make that radio call. And look at the gear lever before making the call
and afterwards, as well. It takes less than a second. And make sure
the Up and Down positions are clearly labeled so there's no confusion
should you get into a rush.

Dan

If I can add to Dan's excellent advice, make it a habit to retract the gear immediately after releasing from tow - and checking it! I bet everybody flying a retract gear glider has had the experience of getting distracted when releasing and forgetting, usually leading to a friend asking on the radio if there is a reason your gear is hanging! But I have also seen a pilot (in a new glider) cross over the field after an XC flight, with the gear obviously still down, then RETRACT IT on downwind. A quick radio call from the ground corrected the problem, fortunately, before an expensive short landing roll/slide.

Even better, IMO, if you have a nose hook, is to retract the gear while still on tow. I bring up my wheel passing through 1000' on tow; one less thing to worry about when releasing low into a tight little thermal...

I saw a very experienced national champion (or near to it) kind of guy land gear up after a several hour soaring flight. During the tow he'd been asked if it was ok for the trainee tow pilot to practice descending on tow (with compensation on the tow time) and this had somehow led to him forgetting to put the gear up.