REFLECTOR: Gear-up landing

Pat Shea xl340hp at yahoo.com
Thu Jan 11 14:34:23 CST 2007


Al,

Thanks for sharing. It's good to hear that the repair
is progressing quickly.

I don't have any gear up warnings on my XLRG - just
the lights. I didn't have any on my Comanche either. I
do a GUMPS check in the pattern and a gear down and
locked (two green lights) check on short final. The
redundancy helps me, as there have been plenty of
times when the GUMPS check was interrupted and even
inadvertently skipped completely. As you said,
distractions happen...

While I was flying off the 25 hours on my XL, I was
doing T&G's with the family watching. I put the gear
switch lever down on the downwind, performed a GUMPS
check, and turned final - the airspeed and approach
looked good. I checked for two green lights at about
200' and they weren't on. It took a couple seconds to
compute since in the hundreds of previous landings
I've done in RG's they had always been on. I aborted
and tried the "Reset" button on my gear switch panel
which cured the problem. Nice feature. My hydraulic
system hasn't done this again in the last 200 hours.

Funny, but now that I'm not overloaded just flying the
plane, the pitch change when the gear is lowered is
even more obvious than the additional drag which is
pretty obvious too. 

So what's the lesson? Never leave your wife and two
kids with a hand held radio while doing T&G's, because
if they hear you abort with a gear problem they may
completely freak out...

Pat    

--- Al Gietzen <ALVentures at cox.net> wrote:
 
> I am amazed at how many pilots have to come to me
> with their gear-up
> stories, and there have been two EZ's that have done
> gear-up landings at my
> airport in the last month, one just four days after
> mine.  Clearly this
> happens too often.  I have had some discussions with
> the two EZ pilots about
> ways to insure that these don't happen.  First;
> there is no substitute for
> good pilot discipline!!  Airspeed and throttle
> closure alarms are helpful.
> In my case, I never got below the airspeed required
> to sound the horn, if it
> had sounded I may not have heard it with my headset
> on, and there are many
> landings where the throttle may not be pulled to
> closed until the flair when
> it may be too late.
> 
>  
> 
> A voice warning system is a good idea.  The radar
> altimeter is a good idea,
> but seems unnecessarily expensive.  There may be a
> way to get a less
> expensive AGL detector, and design the circuits to
> give the audio alarm in
> the headset.  One of the EZ pilots is an electronics
> design/software whiz,
> and he was agreeable to do some work toward
> designing a system for an audio
> reminder, based on GPS output, that sounds when the
> plane is within about
> 1-2 miles of an airport, and AGL is less than say;
> 1000ft, and the gear is
> up.
> 
>  
> 
> I appreciate everyone's care and condolences.  In my
> case it was a
> combination of distractions, lack of awareness
> (complacency?), and lack of
> experience.  I had gotten out of the discipline of
> the 'Before landing'
> checklist (audiblizing) because it seemed
> unnecessary.  With one lever
> contol, no flaps, no mixture, no carb heat, etc.
> there is really only one
> thing to do - put the gear down.  I thought I would
> never overlook that
> because the plane is so slippery it is difficult to
> get pattern speed
> without the gear drag. So who needs a checklist,
> right?  Entering downwind
> you get the speed down to 120kts, drop the gear and
> get down to about 100kt
> pattern speed.
> 
>  
> 
> I had a good flight, enjoyed the way the plane flies
> and handles; did a few
> simulated approach to landings (putting the gear
> down each time on entering
> downwind); then headed back for some touch and goes.
>  There was no
> "downwind" for setting, because the tower cleared me
> for a right base entry.
> Hum-m, well that's fine, but I was too high and
> pretty fast so I decided to
> do a 360.  Dumped some altitude and speed, and
> coming into a base entry I
> was at about the right altitude and speed, so I
> continued into my approach.
> The tower then called that they didn't have me in
> sight and requested I call
> turn to final; which I did; and then focused
> entirely on alignment and
> descent rate.  I recall (hindsite) noting that the
> speed was a bit high, but
> before the VGs and canard incidence adjustment; 100
> kt approaches were the
> norm.  And the rest is history; as they say.
> 
>  
> 
> The x-military pilots tell me - always first come in
> over the runway, then
> break to downwind and set up, and always say aloud
> "Gear speed, Gear down,
> flaps;  whatever. . "  Seems like a good idea, I
> don't know that the ATC
> folks like it, especially when they have a couple of
> those 'slow' planes in
> the pattern.
> 
>  
> 
> I will get back to calling my landing checks aloud
> on downwind or base, and
> always call two greens for gear on final.  And, now
> that my stall speed is
> down around 68-70, I will be sure my approach speed
> is about 85-90; a speed
> at which the warning horn will sound if the gear are
> not down.  I will also
> check out a way for that alarm to sound in my
> headset.




 
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