On Saturday, September 8, 2018 at 7:32:30 PM UTC-7, wrote:
I landed gear up last May, and I am (rightfully) embarrassed about it. I was on a long final glide into Moriarty, attempting to set the "digital inputs" from my airbrake and landing gear switches into my new LXNAV S80 properly to give me the lovely British lady's voice to "Check Gear" when the airbrakes were opened with the landing gear retracted. I couldn't get them to operate correctly, and I concluded that one of the two microswitches on the airbrake rod or landing gear mechanism was faulty or misaligned.

So I drop into the pattern, and make my radio call, "Moriarty Traffic, MSM over the Water Tower turning left downwind. Gear is down. Moriarty Traffic."

Whereupon, I operated the gear handle in the opposite direction from what is recommended in every flight manual, hangar flying session or other basic discussion of dumbass maneuvers involving aircraft. Yep, the gear was already down after I gave up on the futile attempt to make the S80 talk to me.

After the disconcerting scraping noises had stopped (short of the taxiway turnoff, as you might expect) and my supply of four letter words was depleted, helpful friends got me off the runway.

So while undergoing repairs, and talking to the LXNAV distributor, I discover that the "digital inputs" for airbrake and landing gear switches, while mentioned in the LXNAV S80 manual, are not actually SUPPORTED by the software!

Silly me! Learned a lesson, and installed a set of flashing red/blue LED lights in the panel. No mistaking those, and I believe they are superior to another beeping/honking/tweeting audio noises that modern instruments like to inflict.

But, as is my practice, I had called "Gear is down!" so the folks on the ground would recognize me as a Superior Aviator who always follows a set procedure and never would do something as stupid as landing gear up. Therefore, there was no reason for anyone on the ground (with access to a radio) to visually check my gear status and perhaps make me aware that financial difficulty was in my immediate future.

Yup, a painful experience, but fortunately, only to my ego and wallet. No animals were harmed during this event.

I have added a prominent, green, gear down LED on the panel of my new ASH 31Mi. I prefer the idea of a positive confirmation that I am OK to land vs a warning that something is wrong.

Tom