REFLECTOR: Gear warning horn

[Andy Millin]

Jerry,

I have had the emergency gear down deploy on me uncommanded in cruise
flight.  I had picked up some ice and the system detected < 80 kts and
it dumped at 10K.  It was a bit unnerving.

You know I'm building the FG, but I still fly an Arrow from time to time
and it is complex.  I know this has been an issue for some Arrow pilots.
Unfortunately or fortunately there is the manual override and you can
even disable the feature.  We have all read of situations where the
pilot ignored the blaring warning, or even over rode the system that was
trying to save them.  I have gotten in the Arrow (I rent it) and found
it disabled.  Glad I checked.

My best defense on landing gear up has been my paranoia about doing so.
On downwind my head is going GUMPS,GUMPS,GUMPS,GUMPS.  On base
GUMPS,GUMPS,GUMPS.  On final GUMPS,GUMPS,GUMPS.

Even then I have landed, been on roll out and noticed that I hadn't
pushed the prop full forward.  I just shot the ILS and was paying
attention to the approach plate and the needles and got to the GUM.  It
was a straight in approach-radar vectors-different from the normal
pattern routine.  Scared the &^%* out of me.

Not much help.  I just don't think that the solution Piper has is that
much better.

Say "hi" to Linda for me!

Best,

Andy


 
-----Original Message-----
From: reflector-bounces at tvbf.org [mailto:reflector-bounces at tvbf.org] On
Behalf Of Jerry.Brainard at anthem.com
Sent: Friday, September 10, 2004 10:08 AM
To: Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list
Subject: Re: REFLECTOR: Gear warning horn



With all of the talk about gear warning horns, I am surprised no one is
looking into a Piper Arrow like solution with an auto gear extension
system.  Although I never had it deploy, it always felt good to know
that it might make the save if needed.

So what would it take?  What are the problems?  Is it very complex?
Like every solution there are compromises that have to be made.  I am
just hoping that there is some straight forward way to implement a
safety net solution so I don't become a member of the gear up landing
club.

(OK so those of you with the fixed gear don't need to remind me that you
don't have this issue. Fixed gear is a fail safe solution, but again, a
compromise)

Jerry




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