Howdy (and a story)

cshodges

cshodges

Filing Flight Plan
Joined
Oct 11, 2013
Messages
9
Location
Austin, TX
Display Name
Display name:
Scott
Got my private license last November, working on the 2nd hundred hours now. Joined a flying club. Having a great time!

Here's the most adrenaline I've felt while still sitting on the ground:

A couple months ago I was working on a complex rating, finished the run up near 17L, and watched a Baron coming in. I said to my instructor, "Hey, is his gear still up?" "It is!" He grabs the mic, "Gear up! Go around, go around!" -- but alas, we were still tuned to ground, not tower. "Ground, sorry for shouting in your ear like that." "That's okay, we appreciate the help. We relayed the message, but it was too late." "Well, I guess we'd like to taxi to 17R now..." And that was about the time the trucks came screaming out to the runway. Luckily, the only injury in that accident was a little pride. 17L was still closed for landing when we came back an hour and a half later (but they were allowing small GA planes intersection takeoffs past the accident).

Then I land, tie down the plane, get out my phone, and I have about 30 text messages from family members. "Are you okay?" "There was a crash!" "Where are you?" "Found you on Find My Friends, so I guess it wasn't you!"
 
Welcome. Seen a few gear ups, sad to see. But as a controller I saved a C210 from doing it, so that felt good.
 
The worst I saw was a pair of wood chocks HOVERING underneath a spinning prop in the parking area, while I was preflighting. I ran behind his wing strut shouting my head off and making "stop" and "cut" marshalling signals. Yes, he hit them. Running the prop at 1800 RPM to "clean" plugs before shutdown sure doesn't seem like a good idea anymore.
 
Welcome to PoA.

One good thing that might come from it...I'll bet when you start flying retractable gear aircraft you'll probably never forget the picture of that incident when you are on final approach, and therefore there's not much chance you'll ever forget to check gear down ;)
 
GRG55 said:
Welcome to PoA.

One good thing that might come from it...I'll bet when you start flying retractable gear aircraft you'll probably never forget the picture of that incident when you are on final approach, and therefore there's not much chance you'll ever forget to check gear down ;)
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Definitely. I was actually in an Arrow with an instructor going up for complex endorsement training when this happened. In addition to the usual GUMPS check, he preached checking gear on base and on final, something he picked up in the military.
 
One thing I do before I lower the gear is press to test the red light, just to be sure that light is working, then all three green lights, then gear down.

Just lowering the gear, three greens, no red, one in the mirror becomes too monotonous. I still recheck the gear down on final, the last step of my landing flow check.

I knew a college professor that had 5 gear up incidents in 45 years of flying. I was present at his last one. He argued with and was very demanding of the airport manager to NOT report that to anyone. To be fair this man was very knowledgeable in his field, which was not aviation.
 
Gear down abeam intended landing point. Check light and touch switch to confirm position on base. On final, check the mechanical indicator on the floor (it's actually painted on the gear mechanism).

But I once flew an approach in actual, the long, curving over-the-bay approach into Panama City, and was making sure to follow the curve. Missed the little * on the plate and wondered why I was both above the glide slope and high. Realized about the time I broke out (1100-1200 msl) that the gear was still up . . . Now I will know what's going on the next time I forget--fast and high = gear still up.
 
Welcome to PoA and thanks for the story. It happens more often than you'd think. It increased my insurance rate this year because "everybody's doing it", as my insurance company put it.
 
The worst gear up I ever saw was a P-51 Mustang. We all saw it happening, and started shouting (lol!), to no avail, of course.

He slid to a stop on that beautiful belly scoop, the prop and engine trashed. We saw him just put his head down on the gunsight for several long moments...
 
One of the things I really like about the Mooney I bought is lowering the gear with the Johnson Bar is quite an event, one I am somewhat unlikely to forget. That, and the J-bar sitting upright in the panel is very noticeable, as is its absence.
 
BigBadLou said:
Welcome to PoA and thanks for the story. It happens more often than you'd think. It increased my insurance rate this year because "everybody's doing it", as my insurance company put it.
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According to insurance folks..... There are those that have, those that will, and those that will again....
 
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