How do you forget to lower the gear?

[SToL]

Repeat after me,

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

Yes I can, which is why I was taught, and I teach, and I use GUMPS over, and over, and over, and over during the landing phase. As I said previously in a post, I do know of one time that I actually caught myself haven forgotten the gear. But I caught in on downwind, because I was trained to use GUMPS over and over... not just once and forget about it.

You may call that excessive, I call it a successful gear down landing.

Thank you Mr. cfGUMPS for saving my bacon.

 

[Salty]

Maybe Ryan just doesn't think he can cut it. We're just looking at it upside down: Every successful landing in a retractable plane is a failed gear up landing.

Ok, even I'm having trouble following my logic on that, but it's sound. LOL

 

[ETres]

I know someone who has done it three times . . . I can see it happening to anyone once. Three times, you need to go with fixed gear, or buy a boat.

Wow! I know a guy who did it twice in a nice 182RG. The second time was soon after his plane had been repaired. When I told the A&P who'd done the repair about it, I thought he was going to cry. He was really proud of the way his work had turned out.

 

[steingar]

Last weekend I was flying into a local airport to do some Young Eagle flights. I lowered the gear, checked it secure (pull hard on the bar) and set up for landing. On base and final I started hearing an alarm. It sounded like a gear alarm, so I checked the J-bar again. J-bar secure, land the airplane. I cancelled the first flight of the day when the alarm came on on startup. Not flying kiddies when there's something wrong with the airplane. Took off, and found out I have a new failure mode. The bar can get secure in the panel in a way in which it doesn't trip the switch to activate the gear down light. If it doesn't I'll get the gear warning horn when I reduce power.

I probably could have discovered this even earlier if I'd just checked the gear down light, but to be honest I almost never look at the thing. A good sharp tug on the J-bar will tell me if the gear is locked. No harm, no foul, lots of kiddies flown that day. But an interesting new failure mode. You'd think something that stone simple wouldn't have any, but I guess not.

 

[brcase]

“Use the checklist”. The last thing I want pilots doing single pilot operation doing is looking down in the cockpit at a checklist while entering or on downwind for landing. You might get away with that at sleepy little airports, but it is a recipe for disaster at busy airports, it is to easy to get distracted from the checklist or worse yet have a midair because you are not looking outside. I am all for a critical checklist posted in a fairly obvious place on the panel or in the airplane. It needs to be short and critical items.

Brian

 

[Plano Pilot]

Last weekend I was flying into a local airport to do some Young Eagle flights. I lowered the gear, checked it secure (pull hard on the bar) and set up for landing. On base and final I started hearing an alarm. It sounded like a gear alarm, so I checked the J-bar again. J-bar secure, land the airplane. I cancelled the first flight of the day when the alarm came on on startup. Not flying kiddies when there's something wrong with the airplane. Took off, and found out I have a new failure mode. The bar can get secure in the panel in a way in which it doesn't trip the switch to activate the gear down light. If it doesn't I'll get the gear warning horn when I reduce power.

I probably could have discovered this even earlier if I'd just checked the gear down light, but to be honest I almost never look at the thing. A good sharp tug on the J-bar will tell me if the gear is locked. No harm, no foul, lots of kiddies flown that day. But an interesting new failure mode. You'd think something that stone simple wouldn't have any, but I guess not.

I had the same problem in an M20C years ago. I went around, reseated the J-bar in the down position, problem went away.

 

[midlifeflyer]

“Use the checklist”. The last thing I want pilots doing single pilot operation doing is looking down in the cockpit at a checklist while entering or on downwind for landing. You might get away with that at sleepy little airports, but it is a recipe for disaster at busy airports, it is to easy to get distracted from the checklist or worse yet have a midair because you are not looking outside. I am all for a critical checklist posted in a fairly obvious place on the panel or in the airplane. It needs to be short and critical items.

Brian

Why do anti-checklist people always assume the only way to use a before landing checklist is heads down while on the downwind?

That was a rhetorical question.

 

[Checkout_my_Six]

there is that word again....

my final check list item when turning final....after doing it several times....


"Gear down"......verify (green lights)....check (nose gear indicator showing down position).

 

[sarangan]

“Use the checklist”. The last thing I want pilots doing single pilot operation doing is looking down in the cockpit at a checklist while entering or on downwind for landing. You might get away with that at sleepy little airports, but it is a recipe for disaster at busy airports, it is to easy to get distracted from the checklist or worse yet have a midair because you are not looking outside. I am all for a critical checklist posted in a fairly obvious place on the panel or in the airplane. It needs to be short and critical items.

Brian

You have basically answered the OP's question - i.e, how do pilots forget to lower the landing gear.

 

[Mtns2Skies]

Once I forgot to put the gear up when going around the pattern. When I got to downwind I did my gumps check and said wait a second... As the gear was still down. Scared me sufficiently because I just as easily could have forgotten to put it down instead of up.

 

[flyingron]

“Use the checklist”. The last thing I want pilots doing single pilot operation doing is looking down in the cockpit at a checklist while entering or on downwind for landing. You might get away with that at sleepy little airports, but it is a recipe for disaster at busy airports, it is to easy to get distracted from the checklist or worse yet have a midair because you are not looking outside. I am all for a critical checklist posted in a fairly obvious place on the panel or in the airplane. It needs to be short and critical items.

Brian

Exactly, the approach checklist doesn't need a lot of items and as I said, put it somewhere you can readily reference it (rather than pulling out the POH or a longer checklist).

 

[flyingron]

It sounded like a gear alarm, so I checked the J-bar again. J-bar secure, land the airplane.
I probably could have discovered this even earlier if I'd just checked the gear down light, but to be honest I almost never look at the thing. A good sharp tug on the J-bar will tell me if the gear is locked.

Mooney? The sleeve on the bar needs to be fully up against the retainer in the panel. If you can get even a fingernail in there, it's not locked up (and the gear is not locked down) properly.

 

[ElPaso Pilot]

L

And I had a friend that this led to a gear up. He did a perfect approach with the gear down. A plane pulled out on the runway ahead of him so he went around (sucking up the gear) but never put it back down as he came back around.

My instructor pretty much treated it as a fatal error not to check and announce the gear down on short final.

^^^ Distractions like this out of the ordinary flow are often the culprit.

Two I can think of.

Bo pilot announces and turns base to final at 5T6 in New Mexico.

Citation or some other shiny jet rolls onto the opposite runway without listening or stopping to look and makes his first announcement that he is on the go and departing.

Bo pilot curses to himself, sucks up the gear, does a lazy 360 on final to let jetboy past, resumes on short final and grinds it in with the gear up.


Second one:

Club owned 182RG has a dumb “do not retract the gear during pattern work” directive to “avoid wear and tear” on the gear.

Pilot working with the club CFI spends a good amount of time working laps in the pattern. With the gear down, as instructed.

CFI says “great, let’s call it an afternoon”, they suck up the gear and start to depart the pattern. CFI has a thought, says “hang on, my plane, let me show you how to grease it in - I’ll land it this time”, takes over and proceeds to gear up, using the flow just like they did on the previous 10.


My takeaway, it’s not the normal landings where one forgets. It is the unplanned break in the normal flow that caused these issues.

 

[SkyDog58]

Once I forgot to put the gear up when going around the pattern. When I got to downwind I did my gumps check and said wait a second... As the gear was still down. Scared me sufficiently because I just as easily could have forgotten to put it down instead of up.

I disagree. I think that forgetting to retract the gear is a far easier oversight to make than forgetting to put it down. And the results are far different as well.

 

[SkyDog58]

L


^^^ Distractions like this out of the ordinary flow are often the culprit.

Two I can think of.

Bo pilot announces and turns base to final at 5T6 in New Mexico.

Citation or some other shiny jet rolls onto the opposite runway without listening or stopping to look and makes his first announcement that he is on the go and departing.

Bo pilot curses to himself, sucks up the gear, does a lazy 360 on final to let jetboy past, resumes on short final and grinds it in with the gear up.


Second one:

Club owned 182RG has a dumb “do not retract the gear during pattern work” directive to “avoid wear and tear” on the gear.

Pilot working with the club CFI spends a good amount of time working laps in the pattern. With the gear down, as instructed.

CFI says “great, let’s call it an afternoon”, they suck up the gear and start to depart the pattern. CFI has a thought, says “hang on, my plane, let me show you how to grease it in - I’ll land it this time”, takes over and proceeds to gear up, using the flow just like they did on the previous 10.


My takeaway, it’s not the normal landings where one forgets. It is the unplanned break in the normal flow that caused these issues.

Oh yeah.

I know of a Bonanza that landed gear up at AVL this year after being sent around because an airliner was closing in on his tail on final. He actually forgot to put both the gear and flaps down though he had them down the first time. Disruptions are ... well ... disruptive.

 

[Landing Fees]

I disagree. I think that forgetting to retract the gear is a far easier oversight to make than forgetting to put it down. And the results are far different as well.

Two CFIs last night forgot to raise the gear. The first one was distracted by a thunderstorm the second was distracted by the lack of outside visual reference. The green light is soothing at night but the plane flies faster with the amber light lit up.

 

[Arrow76R]

SkyDog58 is right on the beam...The green gear lights in my Arrow are dimmed when the nav lights are on. I recall one late night winter departure from ABQ in my Arrow dealing with ATC, city lights, airline traffic and ensuring I had enough altitude to clear Sandia Peak up the US Route 40 canyon when I realized the plane wasn't climbing as fast as usual. Another data bit registered that the heater wasn't putting out the normal warm air flow . A quick glance at all the engine gauges showed nothing amiss until I realized I had short changed my post take-off checks and I looked again at the gear lights which were glowing a soft green!! Up with the wheels...up with the climb and on with the heat! IMHO Piper didn't do me any favors having the gear lights be dimmed to a VERY low level when the nav lights are on...Oh, as to why the heater air flow is severely limited when the wheels are down...beats me!!!

 

[SToL]

L


^^^ Distractions like this out of the ordinary flow are often the culprit.

Two I can think of.

Bo pilot announces and turns base to final at 5T6 in New Mexico.

Citation or some other shiny jet rolls onto the opposite runway without listening or stopping to look and makes his first announcement that he is on the go and departing.

Bo pilot curses to himself, sucks up the gear, does a lazy 360 on final to let jetboy past, resumes on short final and grinds it in with the gear up.


Second one:

Club owned 182RG has a dumb “do not retract the gear during pattern work” directive to “avoid wear and tear” on the gear.

Pilot working with the club CFI spends a good amount of time working laps in the pattern. With the gear down, as instructed.

CFI says “great, let’s call it an afternoon”, they suck up the gear and start to depart the pattern. CFI has a thought, says “hang on, my plane, let me show you how to grease it in - I’ll land it this time”, takes over and proceeds to gear up, using the flow just like they did on the previous 10.


My takeaway, it’s not the normal landings where one forgets. It is the unplanned break in the normal flow that caused these issues.

Wow... 360s on final. I guess that saves all that time of side stepping and doing a go around, reentering the downwind and doing your pre-landing checks (GUMPS) all over again. Certainly saved him a lot of time I guess. And much safer too right?

AND... "Do Not Retract During Pattern Work". Probably not the best thing to practice during... practice, but still should not have precluded doing a proper pre-landing check.

 

[ElPaso Pilot]

Wow... 360s on final. I guess that saves all that time of side stepping and doing a go around, reentering the downwind and doing your pre-landing checks (GUMPS) all over again. Certainly saved him a lot of time I guess. And much safer too right?

AND... "Do Not Retract During Pattern Work". Probably not the best thing to practice during... practice, but still should not have precluded doing a proper pre-landing check.

Yup to both, but I’ve had the DAY Class C tower give me a 360 on final for spacing before.

 

[EdFred]

Yup to both, but I’ve had the DAY Class C tower give me a 360 on final for spacing before.

Grand Rapids as well. Of course at the time I was in a 152, sooooo.....

 

[ElPaso Pilot]

Grand Rapids as well. Of course at the time I was in a 152, sooooo.....

I’d hate to ask what you were making a fast closure rate on!

 

[David Megginson]

So it brings up the question, how in H. E. double hockey sticks does someone gear up an airplane? How do you ignore the gear warning horn? Just seems like a total bone-headed move to me.

I don't know. Why do I sometimes catch myself trying to put the cereal away in the fridge and the milk in the cupboard?

 

[SToL]

Yup to both, but I’ve had the DAY Class C tower give me a 360 on final for spacing before.

And I have as well, but doing it at an uncontrolled field is something completely different.

 

[Ghery]

Well, I was trained to GUMPS check my 172 and have yet to find the undercarriage not down/locked.

Down and welded is the typical response to that.

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.

Reminds me of a statement by Captain Ron (no longer on POA, but still active on the AOPA board). Remember the first rule of Italian driving. What's behind you doesn't matter.

SkyDog58 is right on the beam...The green gear lights in my Arrow are dimmed when the nav lights are on.

Back when our club had an Arrow it was the same way. I had a CFI checking me out (hadn't flown it 3 hours in the preceding 180 days, so insurance required the checkout) and every time she thought I wasn't looking on downwind she would reach over and turn on the nav lights. And I always fixed it. Finally I caught her reaching for the switch and swatted her hand. She just laughed and stopped that nonsense. Those lights are dimmed so much that in the middle of the day you can't see the lights to tell if they are on or off. I mentioned this to a pilot at a WPA (Washington Pilot's Association) meeting this afternoon and he said that he replaced the lights in his Arrow with LEDs. They came on full bright regardless of the position of the nav light switch. Don't know if that was legal, but it sure worked for him.

 

[blueskyMD]

I have close to 2000 landings in retracts and I dont remember ever coming even close to gear up ( I am very forgetful BTW ) I attribute this to the initial training during my first complex checkout and the instructor drilled into me to lower the gear to slow down on downwind. So first thing I do when I start to slow down is to lower gear. I do this as second nature even if I am busy with other things.

 

[EdFred]

I’d hate to ask what you were making a fast closure rate on!

I was inbound 26L, and a bizjet was coming in on 35. I'd been cleared to land, then uncleared, then cleared.

Edit: L, not R

 

[Mike Blackburn]

I heard one of the guys on Aviation101 YT channel do a mnemonic prior to landing which I thought was quite useful (in addition to GUMPS)

Red, Blue, Green, the Runway’s clean

Red - mixture set
Blue - Prop forward
Green - Gear down

BTW at the local busy Ga/Commercial airfield 360’s on final are common when tower overestimates your final speed and there is a B738 on approach.
They give me the heebie jeebies but IFR traffic has priority.

 

[flyingron]

I never move the prop forward on approach. It really doesn't do much (other than a slight amount of drag) on most engines. On geared engines it causes unneeded wear to the gear box.

 

[Cap'n Jack]

<raises my hand> I'm sure I'd forget some time to lower the gear. So I restrict my solo flying to fixed gear. A person's gotta know their limitations.

 

[Arrow76R]

Ghery...I also replaced the incandescent bulbs for the gear with LEDs. Yes, full bright all the time because LEDs draw so little current that the dimmer circuit is non-functional. No biggy. Better bright for a few minutes than too dim to see!

 

[Caba]

I forgot it twice during my CPL training while being distracted by the instructor. Both times I was reminded by the warning horn on base. First time was during the 13th or so landing of the flight, second time during a simulated emergency. I was taught to forget GUMPS but to use the checklist only. I guess since GUMPS has helped me not to land without the gear in the twenty-five years of flying before the CPL I will continue to use it now that training is finished.

 

[Kritchlow]

Perhaps not true in smaller airplanes, but the speed on final will give a huge clue in larger aircraft.

That said, many small airplane guys do not abide by the “stabilized approach” method of thought, so perhaps 25 knots too fast on final is acceptable..??

 

[Bill]

Perhaps not true in smaller airplanes, but the speed on final will give a huge clue in larger aircraft.

That said, many small airplane guys do not abide by the “stabilized approach” method of thought, so perhaps 25 knots too fast on final is acceptable..??

25kts too fast in the Mooney once I've turned final? That would be 105kts, even with the gear out, full flaps and power off, I might not be able to get down to 65-70 by the threshold. I'd have to try, but doubt it. By the time I roll out on final, I like to be 70 on the nose. And if I'm light, I'll bleed it down to 65 or so.

 

[FastEddieB]

And I had a friend that this led to a gear up. He did a perfect approach with the gear down. A plane pulled out on the runway ahead of him so he went around (sucking up the gear) but never put it back down as he came back around.

The exact same thing happened to a friend of mine in his Mooney.

 

[Bill]

And I had a friend that this led to a gear up. He did a perfect approach with the gear down. A plane pulled out on the runway ahead of him so he went around (sucking up the gear) but never put it back down as he came back around.

The exact same thing happened to a friend of mine in his Mooney.

Same flow every time. Clean 15" on downwind, makes for 90-95kts on downwind depending on load. Abeam the intended landing point, the same three things in the same order every time, in quick succession. 1st pull throttle to ~11", 2, select gear down, 3, immediately put in half flaps. By the time the flaps are in, the gear horn should silence, the gear down annunciator lit, and the mechanical window on the floor between the seats shows gear down. Should be seeing ~85kts at a decent rate of 400fpm. Turn base, pull throttle a skitch, add full flaps, start trimming up, ~75kts. Roll final, pull throttle a skitch again, trim up more, should be seeing ~70kts.

I rarely do straight ins when VFR, I prefer to fly the pattern because the flow is ingrained. Same on the go around, because I don't dump the gear until abeam the intended landing point, the flow still works on a go around.

Not infallible by any stretch, but doing it the same way every time leads to consistency.

 

[midlifeflyer]

The exact same thing happened to a friend of mine in his Mooney.

If one stops to think about it, an unanticipated go-around is an unusual and distracting event. It is not a normal takeoff and climb. It is not a planned touch and go. Despite common statements like "every landing is a go-around" It is a response to an abnormal situation. And the next landing is often a little more stressful.

When I command a go-around as an instructor, that's where I often (by no means always or even most of the time) see issues with things being missed, and even then, it's at least quasi-expected.

 

[flyingron]

Same flow every time. Clean 15" on downwind, makes for 90-95kts on downwind depending on load. Abeam the intended landing point, the same three things in the same order every time, in quick succession. 1st pull throttle to ~11", 2, select gear down, 3, immediately put in half flaps.

And times you make a straight in approach?

 

[Bill]

And times you make a straight in approach?

1,2,3 at the three mile point, full flaps at 1mi point.

On instrument approaches, 15" and clean to the FAF, 1,2,3 at the FAF, remain half flaps until the runway environment is visible. This works as half flaps is also takeoff flaps in the Mooney, so I'm already in takeoff configuration if I have to go missed.

 

[midlifeflyer]

And times you make a straight in approach?

I often ask this question when I get an "on downwind" answer to when does someone drop the gear. The most common answer I get is that the pilot essentially unhinges the traffic pattern. The only worry I have is if the pilot doesn't consciously realize she is doing this.

I do't know if this is unusual among instructors, but when I do complex transition training, I ask the pilot if she has thought about when to put the gear down. It's a better question now than in the past since, between threads like this and YouTube, there are plenty of examples of plenty of methodologies.

 

[Ryan F.]

Three GUMPPS per pattern. I've always demanded that when teaching in complex aircraft.

You still need to run the checklist, of course. The three GUMPPS checks are in addition to that.

You'll forget one out of the three once in awhile. It's human nature.

You'll forget two out of three on a bad day.

The last one saves your butt when the entire deck of cards falls out of your hand and all you have left is this one ace up your sleeve.