How do you forget to lower the gear?

I don't do acronyms. so no I don't teach "gumps" there's other, better ways. none of of my students nor I have geared up or had a prop strike. so, must be doing something better than others.
 
I saw a video on Instagram (of all places) yesterday from a field somewhere stateside (Riverside, riverfield?) that has, writ large in white on the undershoot the word “WHEELS”

One wonders if this is effective or if the locals simply don’t see it after a while?
 
SToL said:
I gotta ask, because it was a long time ago that I was a student pilot, but are flight instructors not teaching GUMPS anymore?
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Many do. Probably most. Some don't. The G in GUMP doesn't stand for "Guarantee." Mnemonics can be effective but they are not the only option.

Problem is, there is no silver bullet other than fixed gear. IMO, best we can do is minimize the risk of it happening by using good procedures, applied so consistently it becomes a habit (I'm a big believer in the power of habit). That is a combination of things, which may include a mnemonic or mantra, and some of which back each other up.
 
I don't teach GUMPS because I don't believe in memorizing acronyms and then translating to words, and then translating those words to actions. It adds far to much work in a high workload environment. I do a flow check followed by verification of the most critical items against a written checklist. In a retract, landing gear is a critical item. Carb heat, cowl flaps etc are noncritical. I am paranoid about landing gear after having had a mechanical failure leading to a nosewheel collapse. I even check for the three greens during flare.
 
texasclouds said:
Well, I was trained to GUMPS check my 172 and have yet to find the undercarriage not down/locked.
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Yep. But also...

How about the prop in your 172? Has the P in GUMPS worked out as well?

Yeah, I know some 172s have a prop control but most don’t.

And how about the G for gas? How often do you switch tanks in your 172?

So basically, for a typical 172 pilot, it’s MS only.
 
GUMPS and checklists only work if the pilot uses them.
 
And how about the G for gas? How often do you switch tanks in your 172?
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Depending on your model, you're supposed to be on one tank in cruise, so yes you do need to check BOTH prior to landing.
 
And then there's the story of the flight school that "installed" a gear switch in their 172s, that they would have the students touch as part of the GUMPS check so they were ingrained to do that when they got to the complex. Guess what the first few students did when they moved to complex. They only touched the ******** gear switch in the complex and moved on. Never actually actuating the switch. Yay puppy mills.
 
The one thing I like about GUMPS is it allows me to use some CRM. Mrs. Steingar is trained to say GUMPS on downwind, and I usually get my passengers to do so as well. I've never forgotten he gear, but boy have I forgotten a GUMPS check.
 
Never thought of using GUMPS in my 150 ;) lol set the throttle and it pretty much flies itself, and the gear, well its always down for landing.
 
Those are some pretty interesting responses. Some may even hint as to why people sometimes land gear up.

Using an acronym such as GUMPS is not a silver bullet by any means, however receiving proper initial training and good consistent habit building is critical to safety in aviation.

In 1970, GUMPS was one of the first things I learned about flying. I was taught to repeat it several times from entering downwind to touchdown and still do it today, probably excessively, but I can live with that. It only takes about 5 seconds to run through it. It does not prevent or exclude doing other, or additional pre-landing flow, or checklists and can easily be performed in the most demanding high workload environments and aircraft. It has saved me on at least one occasion through more than a few thousand hours of commercial flying across the US and several different countries.

Another valid reason to be in the habit of constantly repeating it, is because it's possible, or even likely that one of the items may not apply just yet, but will in the next phase.

If you’ve learned to do GUMPS once on downwind, you’ve been setup for failure. As with all things good in life, once is never enough. Again, it only takes a few seconds, and for that it’s cheap insurance. Sometimes people have questioned why I do GUMPS so many times prior to landing. Well, how many times do pilots make a mistake simply because they forgot something. Thankfully, I have ALWAYS caught myself somewhere on downwind, because of the ingrained habit of repeating GUMPS over and over.

The cool thing about GUMPS is, at least some portion of it can be used on every aircraft you will ever fly. I even use it in helicopters even though it's mostly useful in the pistons and the complex.

If you think it doesn’t apply to the current aircraft you fly, or only the ‘M’ applies or the ‘S’, then you’re missing the point. You should be utilizing the entire word GUMPS in every aircraft you ever fly, even if that one thing isn’t there, so the day it is there, you have no chance of missing it. This is good habit building.

Having the habit of using it sets you up to be safe in everything you will ever fly. Even if your ‘U’ is fixed, you should still be in the habit of looking out the window and seeing your gear down through the use of WORD and then ACTION.

It’s all about good habit building and GUMPS is an easy acronym to learn, remember and utilize and it could save your bacon one day. If you know of something better, let us know, because I desire to continue being the safest pilot I can and I’m not to old to learn new things.

When it's all over, would you rather hear, "Man, that guy sure went through GUMPS a lot", or would you rather hear, "Man, that guy forgot to...".

Aviation is full of acronyms and many can be extremely useful.
 
"Hearing apparently shuts off first, I think I heard somewhere..." and is vision is next, or I should say tunnel vision comes next.
I noticed on myself, when I get into a really heated argument with someone and let's say there are other people around me, I usually just focus on the one I'm arguing with and I become completely oblivious to what the others are saying. Not that I don't care, I just don't hear them. Same with vision. Got into a really big argument once and when things calmed down and we were discussing what was going on, somebody asked me if I saw John Doe walking past by and saying hi? For the life of me I could not remember seeing John in the picture. I tried hard to remember all the details of the situation and it felt like I was using binoculars and could only see what was right in front of me and everything in the peripheral was pitch black. That's how you forget to lower the gear.
 
This guy flew a couple hundred miles after this....

 
flyingron said:
There as a DC-9 pilot who landed gear up (Continental I think or one of the other Texas Air orgs). Essentially, the FO was flying and he says "hey this thing isn't slowing down right." The captain says "I got it" and proceeds to belly it in.
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Amazing, I thought only Russians were capable of that, as in 2001 Aeroflot 521 landing in Dubai (all 322 passengers of the widebody Ilyushin-86 survived the gear-up landing, according to newspapers at the time).
 
Robin Hood said:
Never thought of using GUMPS in my 150 ;) lol set the throttle and it pretty much flies itself, and the gear, well its always down for landing.
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I tend to use CGUMP. or CCGump with the C being Cowl Flaps and/or Carb Heat as appropriate.
I do like the Critical Checklist Idea and have one placarded on the panel of my glider, But find that difficult to do when I fly a lot of different airplanes that are not mine. That is where CGUMP and variations of it work well.

When I did my initial check out in the Mooney I remember using RCCGUMP (Ram Air, Cowl Flaps, Carb Heat, Gas (tank and pump on), Undercarriage, Mixture and Prop).

After completing my Mooney check out, I checked out in a Champ. It was odd on downwind to only use C (Carb Heat), Well Technically CG, since I also check the Fuel Quantity on down wind since I am aware of few incidents where people have run out of fuel while doing take offs and landings. Possibly as recent as yesterday, Currently only wild speculation if it was fuel issue or not,https://www.ktvb.com/article/news/l...port/277-a9607bfb-0b54-461e-911a-5cce0dc28baf

I also have the habit have trying to do something physically to check the gear even in fixed gear airplanes, in high wings I usually just look out the window to make sure I can see the landing gear. Can't usually do that in low wing airplanes. My one gear up landing was in a Champ when a gear leg was damaged during the takeoff and folded back under the fuselage just as we lifted off (hit a small grading bump about the size of a Speed Bump), I wouldn't have known it was damaged if I had not physically looked at the gear.

Actually I had the "I forgot" moment as well once in my glider. The gear warning failed to actuate (switch issue) and I just forgot, as the glider settled about 6 inches farther than It should have I realized what I had done and had enough energy to pull up, extend the gear and land. but did scrape the bottom of the glider a bit on the pavement.

Brian
CFIIG/ASEL
 
Repeat after me,

"I, too can forget the gear" (despite all my tricks, and mnemonics, and self-assurances, and checklists.)

Picture yourself right now.
(Whatever happened 3 minutes ago in the pattern is behind us and forgotten.) You are gliding down final, concentrating on maintaining centerline "got that nailed"; powering back a smidge to reduce speed "looking good"; no traffic except for a 172 waiting at the hold short line, maybe a brief normal thought about who is waiting or about your rental car....a bit of chatter on the radio "all seems normal".....

A thousand or more folks just like us, with our proven methods, have done it.
I have no sure-fire solution but I think visualizing the scenario helps.
I am certain it will happen to one of us who says "this can't happen because I do _____"
And anyone who says 'that is bone-headed;.....well, that just makes me chuckle softly.
 
Don't want to jinx my self but I would have to be having a really bad day to do what we shall not speak of in the Venture. Even at idle pointed down hill it will be easily indicating 130+ and that's if you can totally drown out the extremely loud alarm that goes off constantly any time I drop below 10" mp.
 
brcase said:
I tend to use CGUMP. or CCGump with the C being Cowl Flaps and/or Carb Heat as appropriate.
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Use the checklist, Luke. Place a quick approach checklist on the door post or the sun visor or someplace you'd be inclined to check at that phase.
I could make up ridiculous acronyms but in the Navion we'd have to add H in there somewhere and in many other planes you'll need "F" for flaps.
I don't mess with the cowl flaps on approach. And if you have a geared engine, you'd be well advised to leave the prop alone on approach. Everything goes to the firewall on go around.

My mechanic did an amusing thing with the gear horn. It was set at a fairly high power level so sometimes you did want to silence it. It was on the same breaker as the starter, so you didn't do another flight with it disabled. I just had it readjusted to a slightly lower power setting.

Amusingly, I came to realize that my XM radio audio didn't work in the air reliably. I never quite put my finger on what was going on until one day I lowered the gear and the music came on. Oh, you're kidding me. I raised the gear and the audio went away. Sure enough, it's connected to the landing gear somehow. I mentioned this to my mechanic, the radio shop who put in my radios, and a couple of other Navion savvy mechanics. Nobody had a clue. So one day, I grab all the installation manuals for the audio panel, the XM receiver, and the Navion. Armed with an ohm meter and various other test equipment and ready to put the plane on jacks if need to, I sat down to figure out the problem.

First step: let's read the manuals. Open up the GDL69A (XM Receiver) manual. Right there in a big box "IF YOU HAVE AN ELECTRIC GEAR OR STALL HORN YOU MUST CONNECT IT TO ONE OF THE THREE ACTIVE HIGH OR THREE ACTIVE LOW MUTE INPUTS." Crap, there's the problem. The way Navion gear horn is switched on both sides. The hot side is switched through the throttle switch and the ground side is switched by the gear down switch. So essentially, you are just connecting a mute to either the gear or throttle switch but not both. Sure enough, I find the wire running to the gear side of the horn. I just yanked it out. I can hear the gear horn just fine over the radio (and I nearly always shut that off on approach anyhow.... any radio reception squelches it anyhow so it's kind of problematic if you're in a pattern with others or where ATC jabbers a lot).
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
(Whatever happened 3 minutes ago in the pattern is behind us and forgotten.)
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That's the key right there. Your last shot in golf doesn't matter. Your last at bat doesn't matter. The last frame in bowling doesn't matter. Your last meetup on grindr doesn't matter (
@Ryanb ). Your last lap around the pattern doesn't matter. Learn from it, but whatever happened last time, you can't change it. Worry about this approach and landing.
 
flyingron said:
Use the checklist, Luke. Place a quick approach checklist on the door post or the sun visor or someplace you'd be inclined to check at that phase.
I could make up ridiculous acronyms but in the Navion we'd have to add H in there somewhere and in many other planes you'll need "F" for flaps.
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Check lists aren't perfect either. Are you telling us that you have never ever missed a line on your checklist or gotten interrupted while doing your check list?

You can argue all you want but 'ridiculous acronyms' are used in many aspects of life and have proven to be very effective. As I said before, no one here is suggesting the use of GUMPS replaces your checklist, nor the other way around. GUMPS is an easy to recall, easy to use mental flow type of checklist that has some value in every aircraft.

If you don't like it, don't use it. But that does not negate it value.
 
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