Isn't the fact of the matter that retractable undercarriages
are a 'Murphy's Law' item that it is possible to get
wrong, whatever systems you put in place.

There are only two sorts of pilots - Those who have
already landed gear up, and those who will some day.
Regretably I am in the former category, but so far
only once (touch wood), and without any damage, as
I made an otherwise good landing on smooth grass.


At the time we were taught downwind checks, but on
the flight in question I got low and almost out of
range of the airfield, so joined straight onto base
leg. No downwind leg, therefore no checks carried out!
In this case an U/C warning device would have saved
me from an embarrassing mistake and having to buy a
large round of drinks in the bar afterwards!

We also had one serious accident (badly damaged glider
plus a damaged back for the pilot) at our site, when
the pilot suddenly remembered that he had left his
wheel up in his glider (which was not fitted with an
U/C warning device) late on final approach, tried to
change hands to lower it, and crashed nose first into
the ground during the attempt.

The arguments against fitting gear warnings, eg. a
distraction late on finals, are not all one way!

For several years the British Gliding Asscociation
discouraged the use of gear up warning devices, and
for a period also didn't even allow instructors to
teach downwind checks. Not very surprisingly we had
a whole spate of wheel up landings about two years
later, as the trainees from this period progressed
on to retractable gear types.

We now teach a short 'pre-landing' check, that can
be expanded as necessary. Knowing that you are at
least supposed to do such a check before landing, has
to be a help, but doesn't guarantee that you will get
it right. Common mistakes are saying 'fixed gear' when
it is retractable (especially if most of your flights
have been done in fixed wheel trainers) , or forgetting
to retract the wheel in the first place and then retracting
it during the checks that you have remembered to do.
A post take-off check then also becomes necessary.


In my opinion, gear up warnings should be fitted to
gliders as a backup to pre-landing checks. If you don't
unlock the airbrakes until you are are just about to
round out, you are guilty of poor airmanship anyway!

Derek Copeland

At 12:12 25 November 2005, Don Johnstone wrote:
At 11:36 25 November 2005, Mark Newton wrote:
A wheels-up landing in an aircraft which doesn't have
an
undercarriage alarm is a wholly predictable accident.
Why is
there this attitude that says it's ok to see it coming,
yawn
about it, and do basically *nothing* to prevent it?
I mean,
you can stress checklists and piloting skill as much
as you
want, but we've built up a track record which says
those things
DON'T WORK to prevent these accidents, while building
up a
simultaneous record which says undercarriage warnings
DO work.
So why resist the fitment of undercarriage warnings?

So, your argument is that all pilots will land with
the wheel up if they do not have an alarm fitted?