Retractable Gear phobia

I think going back and forth would be a lot harder than just flying a retract. That's all I've flown in 200+ hours sans a couple hours here or there, and now I try to put the gear down on the fixed stuff :lol:
 
On the rare occasion where I fly a fixed gear I also find myself calling it out and looking for the three green lights. I am fine with that as it tells me the practice is pretty well ingrained in my little brain.
 
NC Pilot said:
Buy a Cessna retract. That way you can see the mains when you lower them. :D The nose requires a gear mirror though.

My routine is - Take off, gear up, thump in the butt gear up
Landing - Gear down, got a wheel, got a light, land.

It becomes automatic after a while.
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Or you can see that the gear in fact hasn't come down which will happen sooner rather than later in a Cessna retract.

BTDT got the tshirt.
 
So if you were smart you'd be flying a Cessna now, since you've already had the once-in-100,000-hours failure and have a lifetime to go before it happens again.

DavidWhite said:
Or you can see that the gear in fact hasn't come down which will happen sooner rather than later in a Cessna retract.

BTDT got the tshirt.
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tmyers said:
On the rare occasion where I fly a fixed gear I also find myself calling it out and looking for the three green lights. I am fine with that as it tells me the practice is pretty well ingrained in my little brain.
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I used to operate a 172 at a mixed-use field a lot. The military control tower used to always advise us to check gear down unless we reported in the pattern "gear down and locked"
 
And many pilots say (and check) "Gear down, cleared to land" out loud whether or not tower said it first. At least one of them posts here.
 
wabower said:
And many pilots say (and check) "Gear down, cleared to land" out loud whether or not tower said it first. At least one of them posts here.
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Yeah, I'd say that replying "cleared to land 23L with the gear" will probably be a difficult habit to break at this point
 
jesse said:
There are many more variables than just being trained the same way that swing this. Without trying to account for that assuming that it has anything to do with people being trained differently will produce no valid conclusion.

Weekend warriors:
1.) don't train very often
2.) don't take training very seriously
3.) rarely fly
4.) fly around in half busted airplanes they don't want to pay to fix
5.) countless other less than ideal factors that influence accident rates
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I'm seeing an airman Monday (for medical) who also asked who he could use to get his BFR done. He rejected the local Flight school "well I flew with the Mrs, (32 y.o lady flight instructor, full time, very good) and she kept me in the pattern forever. I don't have time for that bull****!" and asked for every other option.

Weekend warriors also think their flight skills are topnotch and that they need no training.

I have to say I have no problem at all with "the Mrs." This guy probably scared the c_ap out of her.
 
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Henning said:
In that case someone failed to instruct him to feel the key for the wheel shape. Gear switches have a wheel on them, flap switches are flap shaped. It's really off the point I was making anyway, the point was there's no particular reason to fear having a gear up as people rarely ever get hurt in them. Carry insurance and be reasonably careful, no fear required.
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"Looks like a flap switch, feels like a flap, must be the flap switch" (mantra for moving the flap switch on the ground).

AFaIK, a significant portion of inadvertent RG accidents involve retracting the gear on the ground, most often when attempting to raise flaps after a full stop landing or during a touch and go. IMO it's just as important to build habits that preclude on ground retractions as it is to prevent landing with the wheels in the wells accidentally.

And there are two things of concern WRT avoiding a loud but short rollout:

One is building habits that make it less likely you will simply forget to move the gear selector at the appropriate time. My favorite for that is "gear down to go down" which loosely translates to using the drag of the gear to initiate your descent from pattern altitude when VFR or at the FAF when IFR (for those NP approaches without a FAF the descent of interest is the one following the completion of a PT or final intercept). On any approach with a GS this would be at GS intercept.

The other is habits that make it more likely you'll notice when the selector is moved to the down position but the gear fails to extend. Options here include the "gear down to go down" mentioned above (nice double duty), checking for green(s) several times before touchdown including one on short final, listening for the "klunk" that announces that something has moved, paying attention to the extra drag, and last but not least leaving your hand on the selector until you have confirmed that the gear is indeed down.
 
gismo said:
"Looks like a flap switch, feels like a flap, must be the flap switch" (mantra for moving the flap switch on the ground).

AFaIK, a significant portion of inadvertent RG accidents involve retracting the gear on the ground, most often when attempting to raise flaps after a full stop landing or during a touch and go. IMO it's just as important to build habits that preclude on ground retractions as it is to prevent landing with the wheels in the wells accidentally.

And there are two things of concern WRT avoiding a loud but short rollout:

One is building habits that make it less likely you will simply forget to move the gear selector at the appropriate time. My favorite for that is "gear down to go down" which loosely translates to using the drag of the gear to initiate your descent from pattern altitude when VFR or at the FAF when IFR (for those NP approaches without a FAF the descent of interest is the one following the completion of a PT or final intercept). On any approach with a GS this would be at GS intercept.

The other is habits that make it more likely you'll notice when the selector is moved to the down position but the gear fails to extend. Options here include the "gear down to go down" mentioned above (nice double duty), checking for green(s) several times before touchdown including one on short final, listening for the "klunk" that announces that something has moved, paying attention to the extra drag, and last but not least leaving your hand on the selector until you have confirmed that the gear is indeed down.
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But my flap switch looks and feels like an emergency brake handle.
 
Henning said:
You might have a problem if you get an old Mooney....:D;)
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Yep, Johnson bar gear.

Well someone was bit by the gear up landing at our local field yesterday, KMGY.

Not sure who it was but the aircraft in the news picture looks familiar.
 
gismo said:
"Looks like a flap switch, feels like a flap, must be the flap switch" (mantra for moving the flap switch on the ground).
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Unless you're flying an older Bo. Looks like a flap switch, feels like a flap, but it's the gear.
 
Henning said:
It does NOT feel like the flap switch, it has a knurled wheel cast onto the edge.
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Older than that one. The 1950 had a set of identical piano keys. A few years later, they did place a wheel on the piano key as you describe before they ultimately went to the modern wheeled handles.

Amusingly, my wife was doing a BFR in a friends arrow. After taking off, the instructor suggested she raise the year. My wife said as soon as she found the handle she would. The instructor pointed out the little wheel on the microswitch on the panel. "This little thing?" Margy says and with two fingers lifts it. "How quaint." The Navion has a big wheel that sticks four inches out of the panel (it simoultaneously pulls the up locks and works a hydraulic valve. In fact, the emergency gear extension is just an even longer handle, about 12").
 
In my infinite wisdom (or probably lack thereof), I'd say that a gear handle should be quite obvious. Every airplane I have flown with retractable gear has had a noticeable "wheel" shaped handle that can't be confused for anything else. And so it should be IMHO
 
I don't think anybody disagrees now, but it hasn't always been that way. Nor have the gear controls always been located on the pilot's side of the cockpit.

35 AoA said:
In my infinite wisdom (or probably lack thereof), I'd say that a gear handle should be quite obvious. Every airplane I have flown with retractable gear has had a noticeable "wheel" shaped handle that can't be confused for anything else. And so it should be IMHO
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Back to the OP topic: yes, gear-ups happen. Most of the time they don't result in damage to anything but your pride. There are several You-Tube videos showing as such.

Yes, a gear up can happen to anybody. You do the best you can to prevent it. There are clues to help you, but for me the biggest last chance thing to keep in mind is the gear horn. When it goes off, firewall it and go around.
 
tmyers said:
Yep, Johnson bar gear.

Well someone was bit by the gear up landing at our local field yesterday, KMGY.

Not sure who it was but the aircraft in the news picture looks familiar.
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Think that is Aviation Sales' 172
 
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