REFLECTOR:Follow up on my bad landing
Jim Sower
reflector@tvbf.org
Thu, 08 Apr 2004 23:18:17 -0500
--------------FACCF29164D1FCFEF687119A
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
<... I am very susceptible to forgetting to putting the gear down - so I developed the
technique ...>
I do too. I think probably everyone with any retract experience has one (or more)
"techniques". In the service, it was mandatory to report your gear down (and
sometimes fuel state, etc.) when you started your turn to base. It helped. There
were still gear up passes made by folks who reported their gear down. I don't think
my "technique" is all that reliable though. I don't think people make gear up passes
because they don't know something, or because they don't have a technique or because
they're stupid. People make gear up passes because they're distracted. Period. All
of my "techniques" and reminders and training and experience do is raise [somewhat?]
the level of distraction it takes to make me "fail" to do this or that procedure. If
nothing sufficiently distracting ever happens to me I can be smug and righteous about
my training or discipline or whatever.
IMO machinery is much MUCH less apt to get distracted than I am, so if I can devise a
machine to make sure the gear gets lowered, I am waaaay ahead of trying to discipline
myself to flawlessly execute some "technique". My Long-EZ has a nice system where if
you're at idle and the gear isn't down an alarm would sound. Simple and fairly
effective, but there were times when you were legitimately at idle with gear up, so
you could cancel the alarm and it was not self resetting. Now, we have the technology
to remind us of lots of things. Like if you're at low power and low speed, you can
have the "monitor girl" (remember her?) come up and tell you "... hey, big boy, do you
think this might be a good time to put your gear down?... " or something like that. I
taxi with my belly board down, and would LOVE to have her remind me to retract it when
I add power for takeoff. With EFIS and all, you could have a sexy voice reminding you
that "... hey pal, did you know that you're only going to have two gallons of fuel
left when you get where you think you're going? ...". There's all manner of things
that inexpensive voice enunciators can do for us with much MUCH more reliability than
depending on our own resources.
NOBODY is so well trained that he can't be distracted into making a stupid looking
mistake.
That's why so many accidents are "pilot error"... Jim S.
Ronnie Brown wrote:
> Don,
>
> You're not the first and you won't be the last pilot who has a gear-up
> incident in a Velocity.
>
> I have 1000 hours total time, 900 of them in fixed gear Cessnas where the
> gear is down and welded.
>
> I know that I am very susceptible to forgetting to putting the gear down -
> so I developed the technique that I shared with all of you. If you took
> that as being self righteous, then I apologize. Hopefully, we can learn
> from each other's mistakes and throw this in with some pointers that others
> of us have learned, perhaps we can avoid the pain of having a gear up.
> These pointers include assembly and maintenance checks, test gear extensions
> while on jacks, practicing letting the gear down manually, and yes, checking
> to make sure the pump ran and two green lights resulted - and one last check
> for two greens on short final.
>
> Our goal should be NO MORE GEAR UP LANDINGS IN OUR VELOCITIES - EVER!!!!
>
> Again Don, thank you for your honesty - and I certainly am sorry that it
> happened!!!!!!!!! Thanks for sharing!!!!
>
> Ronnie Brown
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Donald Royer" <djroyer@earthlink.net>
> To: <reflector@tvbf.org>
> Sent: Thursday, April 08, 2004 6:00 PM
> Subject: Re: REFLECTOR:Follow up on my bad landing
>
> |
> | Not really. Maybe I was a bit short with you. Your's was only one of
> | several responses that had what I considered to have a self-righteous
> | condescending tone that I was getting tired of. I did not report this
> | incident so that I could be preached at and talked down to. If I ever
> have
> | another incident of any kind, I am not sure that I will report it.
> |
> | Don
> |
> |
> | > Based on your somewhat terse answer you
> | > seem to suffer from additional "Hang ups"
> |
> |
> | _______________________________________________
> | To change your email address, visit
> http://www.tvbf.org/mailman/listinfo/reflector
> |
> | Visit the gallery! www.tvbf.org/gallery
> | user:pw = tvbf:jamaicangoose
> | Check new archives: www.tvbf.org/pipermail
> | Check old archives: http://www.tvbf.org/archives/velocity/maillist.html
> |
>
> _______________________________________________
> To change your email address, visit http://www.tvbf.org/mailman/listinfo/reflector
>
> Visit the gallery! www.tvbf.org/gallery
> user:pw = tvbf:jamaicangoose
> Check new archives: www.tvbf.org/pipermail
> Check old archives: http://www.tvbf.org/archives/velocity/maillist.html
--
Jim Sower ... Destiny's Plaything
Crossville, TN; Chapter 5
Long-EZ N83RT, Velocity N4095T
--------------FACCF29164D1FCFEF687119A
Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en">
<html>
<... I am very susceptible to forgetting to putting the gear down -
so I developed the technique ...>
<br>I do too. I think probably everyone with any retract experience
has one (or more) "techniques". In the service, it was mandatory
to report your gear down (and sometimes fuel state, etc.) when you started
your turn to base. It helped. There were still gear up passes
made by folks who <i>reported</i> their gear down. I don't think
my "technique" is all that reliable though. I don't think people
make gear up passes because they don't know something, or because they
don't have a technique or because they're stupid. People make gear
up passes because they're distracted. Period. All of my "techniques"
and reminders and training and experience do is raise [somewhat?] the level
of distraction it takes to make me "fail" to do this or that procedure.
If nothing sufficiently distracting ever happens to me I can be smug and
righteous about my training or discipline or whatever.
<p>IMO machinery is much MUCH less apt to get distracted than I am, so
if I can devise a machine to make sure the gear gets lowered, I am waaaay
ahead of trying to discipline myself to flawlessly execute some "technique".
My Long-EZ has a nice system where if you're at idle and the gear isn't
down an alarm would sound. Simple and fairly effective, but there
were times when you were legitimately at idle with gear up, so you could
cancel the alarm and it was not self resetting. Now, we have the
technology to remind us of lots of things. Like if you're at low
power and low speed, you can have the "monitor girl" (remember her?) come
up and tell you "... hey, big boy, do you think this might be a good time
to put your gear down?... " or something like that. I taxi with my
belly board down, and would LOVE to have her remind me to retract it when
I add power for takeoff. With EFIS and all, you could have a sexy
voice reminding you that "... hey pal, did you know that you're only going
to have two gallons of fuel left when you get where you think you're going?
....". There's all manner of things that inexpensive voice enunciators
can do for us with much MUCH more reliability than depending on our own
resources.
<p>NOBODY is so well trained that he can't be distracted into making a
stupid looking mistake.
<p>That's why so many accidents are "pilot error"... Jim S.
<p>Ronnie Brown wrote:
<blockquote TYPE=CITE>Don,
<p>You're not the first and you won't be the last pilot who has a gear-up
<br>incident in a Velocity.
<p>I have 1000 hours total time, 900 of them in fixed gear Cessnas where
the
<br>gear is down and welded.
<p>I know that I am very susceptible to forgetting to putting the gear
down -
<br>so I developed the technique that I shared with all of you. If
you took
<br>that as being self righteous, then I apologize. Hopefully, we
can learn
<br>from each other's mistakes and throw this in with some pointers that
others
<br>of us have learned, perhaps we can avoid the pain of having a gear
up.
<br>These pointers include assembly and maintenance checks, test gear extensions
<br>while on jacks, practicing letting the gear down manually, and yes,
checking
<br>to make sure the pump ran and two green lights resulted - and one last
check
<br>for two greens on short final.
<p>Our goal should be NO MORE GEAR UP LANDINGS IN OUR VELOCITIES - EVER!!!!
<p>Again Don, thank you for your honesty - and I certainly am sorry that
it
<br>happened!!!!!!!!! Thanks for sharing!!!!
<p>Ronnie Brown
<p>----- Original Message -----
<br>From: "Donald Royer" <djroyer@earthlink.net>
<br>To: <reflector@tvbf.org>
<br>Sent: Thursday, April 08, 2004 6:00 PM
<br>Subject: Re: REFLECTOR:Follow up on my bad landing
<p>|
<br>| Not really. Maybe I was a bit short with you. Your's was only one
of
<br>| several responses that had what I considered to have a self-righteous
<br>| condescending tone that I was getting tired of. I did not report
this
<br>| incident so that I could be preached at and talked down to. If
I ever
<br>have
<br>| another incident of any kind, I am not sure that I will report it.
<br>|
<br>| Don
<br>|
<br>|
<br>| > Based on your somewhat terse answer you
<br>| > seem to suffer from additional "Hang ups"
<br>|
<br>|
<br>| _______________________________________________
<br>| To change your email address, visit
<br><a href="http://www.tvbf.org/mailman/listinfo/reflector">http://www.tvbf.org/mailman/listinfo/reflector</a>
<br>|
<br>| Visit the gallery! www.tvbf.org/gallery
<br>| user:pw = tvbf:jamaicangoose
<br>| Check new archives: www.tvbf.org/pipermail
<br>| Check old archives: <a href="http://www.tvbf.org/archives/velocity/maillist.html">http://www.tvbf.org/archives/velocity/maillist.html</a>
<br>|
<p>_______________________________________________
<br>To change your email address, visit <a href="http://www.tvbf.org/mailman/listinfo/reflector">http://www.tvbf.org/mailman/listinfo/reflector</a>
<p>Visit the gallery! www.tvbf.org/gallery
<br>user:pw = tvbf:jamaicangoose
<br>Check new archives: www.tvbf.org/pipermail
<br>Check old archives: <a href="http://www.tvbf.org/archives/velocity/maillist.html">http://www.tvbf.org/archives/velocity/maillist.html</a></blockquote>
<p>--
<br>Jim Sower ... Destiny's Plaything
<br>Crossville, TN; Chapter 5
<br>Long-EZ N83RT, Velocity N4095T
<br> </html>
--------------FACCF29164D1FCFEF687119A--