Gear warnings

I didn't like the squealers either - they sound too much like vario beeps.
I have a tiny electric noisemaker that emits a ominous 'growl' that doesn't
sound like anything else in the cockpit.

I also use GPS_LOG on my PDA which speaks "check gear" whenever I'm within
pattern altitude of terrain. (I know it wouldn't work for you ridge runners
but out west, we have better lift.)

Bill D


"brtlmj" wrote in message
...
If you can hear you home smoke detector you will hear
the gear warning.

I can't stand being in one room with one of those (I guess that's the
purpose of a smoke detector ;-)). In a small cockpit and under a
canopy the noise level would be high enough to make me a much worse
pilot than I usually am. Close to the ground, this may be fatal.

Bartek

On Nov 20, 6:16 pm, Chip Bearden wrote:
snip
Or
the dive brake handle can get knocked away from the sidewall when the
fuselage is in the trailer (if you think having the ELT go off in the
trailer is annoying, try rolling up to the airport Saturday morning to
find that the gear warning horn has been on for days and your battery
is dead.
sdnip

You leave the battery connected? It's not taken home to recharge?

"brtlmj" wrote in message
...
If you can hear you home smoke detector you will hear
the gear warning.

I can't stand being in one room with one of those (I guess that's the
purpose of a smoke detector ;-)). In a small cockpit and under a
canopy the noise level would be high enough to make me a much worse
pilot than I usually am. Close to the ground, this may be fatal.


Bartek

My piezo buzzer is located in a box surrounded by foam. It is still loud.
As mentioned in my original post, I fly a HP-14 which uses 90 degree flaps
for glide slope control. The buzzer is actuated when ever the flaps setting
is greater then 20 degrees and the gear is up. Normally I start adding
flaps on the down wind and turn base with at least 30 degrees of flap. The
couple of times it has sounded in flight were both on the down wind.

This configuration using piezo sound attenuation on a "flaps-only" sailplane
works well.

Wayne
HP-14 "6F"
http://www.soaridaho.com/Schreder

On Tue, 20 Nov 2007 13:19:46 +0000, Paul Remde wrote:


I really like the TB32 Echo Recorded Sound Alarm (digital voice
playback) option from Tasman. You record someone saying something like
"Lower the gear NOW" into the little box and then wire it into your gear
warning system. It is extremely easy to setup and use. I have heard of
some operators recording messages such as "Lower the F****** Gear!".

Picture the situation. You are in climbing in wave, approaching the ceiling
of the available airspace. You get on the radio, talk nicely to the Air
Traffic Controller and ask for clearance to climb. The good man reads out
squawk codes, barometric sub scale and everything else he can conjure up to
confuse you, then tells you to "stand by". So you carefully recite all
the numbers back to him and at the same time as you deploy the airbrakes to
avoid climbing into the not yet available airspace ...

Damn gear warning!

Ian

The second problem is that I've landed with the warning horn going off
in my ear. True, I'd put the wheel down (but hadn't pushed the handle
quite far enough towards the sidewall. I guess subconsciously I knew
there wasn't a problem (and there wasn't) so I subconsciously ignored

Yes indeed. I had a colleague some years ago who was notorious for
frequent gear-up landings (fortunately on a soft grass strip). He had
the loudest and most obnoxious alarm installed you could possibly
imagine. One day, I was on field duty as he landed. I could hear the
alarm from a couple of hundred yards away, getting louder and louder
as he eventually screamed past me and made another perfect gear-up
landing. As he opened the canopy, the alarm could be heard for miles.

He didn't hear it. In the busy activity of landing, his brain tuned
it out.

It's the same reason we sometimes hit other cars we haven't seen - the
brain selects information to process and can't always be relied upon
to include everything we really need.

Mike

.......s you deploy the airbrakes to
avoid climbing into the not yet available airspace ...

Damn gear warning!


Lower the gear?

My one and only gear up (on turf, thankfully) was a strange ridge day
when the ridge was working and the clouds were low and I had to use
spoilers to stay out of the clouds. The "gear warning" was the toilet
paper roll kind - when you raise the gear, you move the TP roll from the
gear handle to the spoiler handle; open the spoilers and if you have a
TP roll in your hand, the gear is up. On this day, operating the
spoilers with the TP roll in my hand became normal and when I entered
the pattern......

I should have lowered the gear when my "gear warning" went off on the ridge.

Tony V.

Just an off the wall idea here, but haven't seen it before. Why not a
strobe light. Certainly there's nothing else like that in the cockpit,
and it's pretty hard to ignore.

Ed

This might be a bit simplistic but I put a piece of red tape next to
the gear handle in the gear up position. Don't land with the handle
in the red position. It's better than the little picture but you
still have to at least look at the gear handle.

Bob

I have a 3 dollar gear warning system. Take off with a large women's
hairclip on the spoiler handle. When you lower the gear on downwind,
move this to the gear handle. If you pull the spoilers and feel the
hair clip, you have either forgotten to put the gear down or forgot to
move the clip. Either way it forces you to check. "Marker" class
glider drivers who need spoilers on takeoff can modify this with an
extra step. Start with the clip on the gear handle and move it over
prior to gear retraction. No batteries, no loud buzzers going off to
distract you.

2C

On Nov 19, 10:40 pm, fred wrote:
I have paid out of my pocket for several gear up landings by renter
pilots. I know they have the best intent. Rather than require more
insurance, I would prefer a better warning system.
Since I can not hear most warning horns (old ears) I would like to
have a stick vibrator, ( maybe that is off the shelf) a big flashing
light or an explosion. My wallet hurts, and teaching USTALL doesn't
seem to work.
Of all the students I have personally taught, I am the first...Yea,
Me. I landed on the belly while my passenger was having a panic
attack. Maybe the explosion would have gotten my attention.
For me, this is a serious request. Air brake handle markers have been
tried, but the renter pilot seems to forget to install them.
Please also tell me how to get my instructors to teach traffic
scanning. A friend and I had to take a shower and clean up both seats
yesterday. Four eyes, both activically scanning, gave a brief moment
that allowed a close encounter rather than planting a lot of glass
below.
They are very nice people and I love them, so maybe some words to me
would help keep my friends and me both flying.
Fred R.

I always fit a gear warning alarm to my ships but my 'over the fence
check' is gear check down and locked. My one wheels up, luckily on a
deeply grassed runway was after a long hard dehydrating cross country
terminated by a just sub Vne flyby and pullup. Top of the pullup, gear
down, roll onto downwind, arc around to finals, line up on centreline,
pop brakes, all looking good. fence below, check gear down and locked.
Damn! not sure, ISNT THAT UP? Why no alarm? cycle lever. Blast of
siren followed by soft bump and smell of overheated gelcoat.

A company called elk does a combined voice and siren device in the US.
http://www.smarthomeusa.com/Shop/Sec...K-Voice-Siren/
That and a couple of timer chips and you could have a siren then a
subltle voice reminder and then different siren then siren and some
less than complimentary warning

Ian