"Maule Driver" wrote in message . com...
I've always understood the message in that saying to be, "never think you've become so proficient that you are not
subject to leaving the gear up" Not fatalistic but a warning to the wise.

A corollary: "Whatever your method for remembering to get the gear down, remember no method is foolproof."

Bob G said that "IMHO saying (internally) something like "three greens" at least twice before short final should
eliminate the possibility of landing gear up. Worked for me." I'd say, "so far..." with considerable respect Bob..

There's always SOMETHING that can screw up your short final planning (e.g. bird strike, a streaker) and cause you to
forget. If you haven't seen that SOMETHING yet, just keep living.

I almost did it in my glider despite a foolproof method that worked for 1000 hours and hundreds of non-standard
patterns and landings. Fortunately it happened during a contest and an observant ground crew radioed me 10 feet off
the ground.



P-3 in Hawaii shooting low approaches into Lihue airport on Kauai. They decided to do one all the way down to landing,
and you guessed it. The airport was closed the rest of the day while they got it off the runway...