Sacrificial layer for gear-up protection.

On Monday, May 18, 2015 at 2:41:06 AM UTC-4, Jonathan St. Cloud wrote:

I've always presumed that real aviators can fly their aircraft and listen to the radio at the same time.

Fly with the pilots that you have, not the pilots that you would like to have. The notable number of fatal accidents attributed to pilot panic and/or misstep triggered by a panicky radio call is evidence that radio calls on short final (and takeoff) are rather risky. Some of those accidents involved very seasoned pilots.

You'll never know which pilot will be distracted until it happens. It might be a low hours pilot, or it might be a high hours pilot that is tired or past his prime (or both). That the gear is up or the tail dolly left on in the first place is a clear indication of pilot brain fart, and one brain fart flags the risk of an adverse reaction to a radio call.

The BGA rule against this sort of radio call is an interesting counter balance to the consensus of RAS pundits in favor of short final/takeoff radio calls.

A pilot who is not sure how he would react has the option of turning off his radio at some point.