Gear Warning

"Derek Copeland" wrote in
message ...
Dear 'bumper',

Good luck in remaining in the third category!

You have been saved from a wheel up landing on one
occasion by a gear up warning device. I was not so
lucky!

I believe that you said in a previous piece that it
was in a Mooney, i.e. is a powered aircraft. Power
flying tends to be a bit more structured than gliding
in terms of checklists etc, but then you have more
time to carry them out during the mini cross-countries
that power circuits seem to have become.


True, however, power planes sometimes do lots of touch-and-goes, so there's
more opportunity for a gear-up. Perhaps this skews the odds back in the
other direction? One might argue that a Mooney is not the typical trainer,
so wouldn't be subject to this.

I got the Mooney when I was a 25 hour student pilot, so was doing lots of
circuits and bumps when I had my "almost" gear-up. Abeam the numbers, I
thought, "Better put the gear down", not thinking that's where it already
was because I'd failed to raise it on take-off. Flipped the gear switch,
didn't matter which direction - - I just needed to operate something - - and
listened to the somewhat familiar sound of the gear in transit. Hmm, why is
that warning sound disturbing me?? Had there been no gear warning system,
there's no question of what would have happened next.

all the best,

bumper

OK, I will concede that a few glider pilots go through
their careers without a wheel up landing, but they
are probably in the minority, or fly fixed gear types
anyway.

I have never understood the arguments against pre-landing
checks or undercarriage warning devices, which I will
list:

1) You might forget to do the check, or get it wrong!
2) You shouldn't rely on something that could go wrong
and fail to operate
3) An U/C warning device going off late on finals could
distract a pilot and cause him to have a serious accident,
rather than a minor scrape.

On the other hand:
1) In gliders, the U/C warning device is normally linked
to the airbrake lever. If you unlock the airbrakes
with the wheel up, the warning device should sound.
I normally unlock the airbrakes, but hold them shut,
on the base leg, so if the warning did go off, I would
have plenty of time to sort the problem out.

2) Undercarriages provide a degree of shock absorption
in the event of a heavy landing. A heavy wheel up landing
is much more likely to injure the pilot and seriously
damage the glider.

3) If I am warned at the last minute that I have left
the gear up, I don't necessarily have to try and lower
it. I can either head for a grass area, rather than
a tarmac runway, or aim to land as gently as possible.
I would rather know!

With pre-landing checks plus an U/C warning device,
at least two things have to go wrong before a gear
up landing can occur. Why not use the available techiques
and technology?

Derek Copeland



At 16:12 26 November 2005, Bumper wrote:

'Derek Copeland' wrote in
There are only two sorts of pilots - Those who have
already landed gear up, and those who will some day.

No offense, but that, of course, is hog-wash. There
is a large third
category of pilots: 'Those who use whatever tools are
available to them to
fly safely and NOT land gear up during their entire
flying career.'

I intend to remain in this latter group.

all the best,

bumper
(2000+ hours in retractable since 1991 and no belly
scratches yet. One gear
warning save during training.)