Gear Up on Highway?

Shut down a small airport, nobody cares. Shut down the highway, you make the news! :)
 
I did not understand this either. The emergency gear deployment is pretty robust. Gravity is on your side.
Yeah. Musta been an engine failure. The news made it sound like the gear failure is what caused the off airport landing. Thought I’d just start right out with silly reporting and get it over with. I can’t tell if the prop is bent
 
Yeah. Musta been an engine failure. The news made it sound like the gear failure is what caused the off airport landing. Thought I’d just start right out with silly reporting and get it over with. I can’t tell if the prop is bent
The news also called it a Piper Cub. In the picture I saw the prop did not look bent. I don’t think will ever find out what actually was going on but I do find the whole thing curious. He did at least have the presence of mind to put the flaps down.
 
Frankly, unless I suspect there's a problem with the gear system itself, I'm going to land gear down. I land gear down-down on a grass strip on a majority of my landings, so in an emergency, I do the same.
 
The news also called it a Piper Cub. In the picture I saw the prop did not look bent. I don’t think will ever find out what actually was going on but I do find the whole thing curious. He did at least have the presence of mind to put the flaps down.

The gear retract has never worked right on any cub I've flown. Granted, I've only flown about four or five different cubs. Glad he got the flaps down. Maybe the initial problem was an electrical failure?
 
One assumes that a pilot made rational decisions. This is sometimes not the case. Examples: The airplane that I flew to get my retreads had been "destroyed" (per NTSB) when a solo student pilot panicked and elected to land in a field instead of on the runway. Or, a student pilot (who was wearing a parachute) on a long cross country ran out of gas on final, turned away from the airport, and jumped.
 
Perhaps he wanted to greatly shorten the rollout ...
 
Or he realized the insurance company wouldn't pay out for an engine stoppage, but would pay for a totaled aircraft.
 
Looks like a lot of open field in the background...
 
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