The new Fork Tailed Doctor Killer

On Sat, 22 Mar 2008 05:10:15 +0000 (UTC), Bertie the Bunyip
wrote:

Dudley Henriques wrote in
:

Bob F. wrote:
I had an interesting event years ago with an owner of a light twin
who took off from FXE to go to PMP, just after lift off, reach down
to pull the gear up, stopped and said, "you know what, It's only 7
miles to PMP, I'm just going to leave the gear down". Ok, sounds ok
to me. There was a quick call to PMP, two turns later and we are
downwind. He does a GUMPS check and RETRACTS the gear. I said to
myself, this is going to be interesting. He's trying to slow the
airplane down but hasn't put it together that he just got rid of a
lot of drag. He turns final, still over speed, and I ask him to do
another GUMP check and he misses it again. Halfway down final I tell
him to call the tower and tell him we are going around. He does,
initiates a go around procedure and this time, on climb out, realizes
the gear is already up. What a surprise look on his face. So after
we got on the ground and started talking about this, we wondered what
it was that he was actually training himself to do. He was not
correlating gear up - take off, gear down -landing. Nor was he
correlating "three green - gear down". All he was training himself
to do was to "flip the switch into the other position". We talked
about using rituals in order to reduce accidents, like when you take
off, bring the gear up, no matter how close the next landing will be.
I also have never heard of one of my students land gear up since I
teach 3 checks. 1 full check list before pattern, 2 enter pattern
GUMPS list, and 3 short final say "three green".

I do the same, and did so for years while instructing. Many gear up
accidents are caused by the go around scenario where the gear cycle
gets reversed. I've always taught that a go around means a complete
clean up of the airplane, then a recheck of the prelanding checklist.
I also agree on the triple check. I suggest a final GUMPS check
performed by a verbal touch, identify, and verify method immediately
after the base to final turn.
There's nothing better to keep you in good health in the aviation
business than a good solid no changes allowed habit pattern!!



Hmm. My own view of it is that at any given moment, you're screwing
somethng up. If there's a mistake to be made, you're going to make it.
That means looking around for the error and double checking double
checking and double checking again. Assuming that your habits will
protect you just never worked for me. I'm not saying you shouldn't have
them, far from it, I'm just saying the best safety net I've discovered
for myself is that of a heft suspicion that ATC, the company, Boeing,
the FO and myself especially, are all conspiring to kill me.

I know for a fact ATC has tried a number of times on me:-))
First, I use a verbal checklist, do it, then verify against a written.
Even then, if we do it enough times we will see what we expect and
particularly when pressed for time.

In addition I have a 100 foot gear check.


Bertie
Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com