The nightmare scenario landing gear up is hitting a half-buried rock that's hidden in the grass/crop/dirt. I clobbered not one but two such rocks going into a pasture years ago in which another pilot had just landed safely. He didn't see the rocks or the damage they caused until he ran up to my cockpit.

When the wheel/tire hit the first rock, the compression struts in the landing gear failed (as designed; thank you, Gerhard Waibel!), allowing the undamaged wheel/tire to pivot back and up against the bottom of the fuselage where it jammed, keeping the fuselage well above the ground. The *second* rock a few meters later creased the fuselage but did no other damage because I had still had ground clearance. The landing gear absorbed all the shock and was easily repaired by M&H. The damage to my spine if I'd landed wheel up would have been much more severe.

I was sitting on a ridge and had ample time to pick a field and make a pattern and a textbook low-energy approach. I never saw the rocks in the grass.

Chip Bearden
ASW 24 "JB"
U.S.A.