Gear up landings can happen to ANYONE...

(Todd, take a look at my previous glider related post)
I think that rechecking the a/c config is still a good response even
though a glider sustains minimal damage on a gear up. After all, there
is little configuration to check in a glider...

I had someone call my gear down during a relight at a contest. 50
sailplanes launched (Mifflin Pa) to sit in weak ridge lift in the hope
that we'd be able to start and complete a short task on an forecast
short, weak racing day. Of course we all launched with ballast just in
case so there were a number of busy relights as ballast was dumped, 300'
patterns flown and sailplanes littered the runway.

I hadn't decided whether to do a downwind straight-in or abbreviated
pattern when a crew member called up for me to check my gear.

I'll never know whether my cross check would have worked as planned (see
other post). I hadn't opened my window yet so my gear was still up. I
was at 300' with some energy. I told the crew that they saved my bottom
but I'll never know ... but I'm pretty sure I would have caught it with
my cross check.

T o d d P a t t i s t wrote:
"Dudley Henriques" wrote:


a plane on final,. The pilot had his gear up. The controller said "XXXXX GEAR DOWN."


When told something like this by someone over the radio, the right thing to
do, even if the voice tells you exactly what is wrong and what to do, is to
treat it as a warning to recheck the airplane's configuration.
At that point you should do nothing automatically. The correct response is
to back up and recheck for a properly configured airplane by redoing the
final check.
If any doubt exists and/or there is no time to perform a recheck before
crossing the threshold, go around and set up again for another landing.


Good advice for an airplane, but problematical for a glider
that can't go around. A glider will do very little damage,
or no damage (particularly on grass) so the biggest concern
on a radio warning of any type is the distraction and
failure to maintain control. It's similar to the sudden
canopy/door opening problem. That said, however, I found it
useful to practice specific distractions, including the gear
warning distraction from the radio or the gear warning
buzzer. There is actually plenty of time to visually check
the gear position, verify it is correct or incorrect, and
reposition it if necessary, provided that the process is
practiced and becomes habit.