Another glider crash?

A few years ago I had to do an 8-mile straight in approach in the rain
and against traffic. It's a completely different story of how I got
into that position. :-[ . Anyway, I called straight in from 5 miles and
announced that my gear would remain up due to my low energy state. I
continued making periodic calls with the gear statement and added that I
would lower the gear when I got over the pavement. Keeping the gear up
got me to the runway and making the calls reinforced the need to put it
down as soon as I crossed the threshold.

Still haven't scraped the belly and plan not to...

On 9/22/2015 8:05 AM, BobW wrote:
We also had a gear up landing the day before that discussion. The
pilot got
low south of the field and was preparing to land on RWY 36. He got a
small
thermal which boosted him to 300' AGL and decided to extend to base
for RWY
26. He told me he was thinking "Oh Boy! This is gonna be my best
landing
ever!", and then hearing a scraping sound...

I have watched two incidents of ASW15s ground effect flying across the
airfield with brakes shut and wheel going up and down. Quite amazing
performance!

An ASW15 pilot I once knew used to place a rubber band around the brake
handle. When he deployed the brake he thought "what's that rubber band
doing on the handle" and it reminded him to put the wheel down! A
bit like
tying a knot in your tie.

1) Every place at which I've ever taken instruction or "BFR" (a U.S.
thing) has taught the "visual spoiler check" as part of the pattern
checklist, so I kinda hoped it was "the standard" throughout the U.S.
(a country of unrepentant individualists). Evidently not?

2) Having heard it was possible (as in people had done it already) to
confuse handles (e.g. typically, gear for spoilers), I believed; the
proposition seemed plausible. Upon crossing over to the dark side of
large-deflection landing flaps instead of spoilers, I still believed
it was plausible, but another part of my brain simultaneously
concluded it was unlikely, given the "unmistakably differing" effects
of flap vs. spoiler deployment. Nonetheless, I seem to remember a
retractable-gear 1-35 crunch that *may* have involved handle
confusion, despite the 1-35's "unmistakably/ergonomically conflicting"
flap/gear handles/actuation. If it happens it must be possible has
long been one of my personal maxims. :-)

3) The gear-up scenario above may well be THE number one reason for
glider gear-ups, i.e. focus on "something else" to the detriment of
Joe Pilot's routine procedures. The very first time I "stretched a
glide" back to the pattern in a retractable gear glider, about the
time I concluded I was "good for at least a straight-in" I also ran my
pattern checklist (at ~300' agl). Yup. I'd completely forgotten about
the gear to that point. Talk about shock and alarm!

Points being, those simple things your instructor (so it's hoped)
taught you about checklists and verifying one's actions, aren't only
based on others' prior mistakes, but they *work!*

Bob - no gear-ups or handle confusions yet - W.


--
Dan, 5J