Gear up landing accidents

To me the key, and one I preach when I teach, is a consistent SOP. One so consistent it becomes a habit. Habits are hard to break. That SOP may be associated with a written checklist, a mnemonic, a flow, whatever, but the key is consistency so that mental (and sometime physical) alarms go off automatically when you don't follow it.

Personal examples:
1. The closest I ever came to a gear up was when I saw another pilots' gear deployment procedure, liked it and tried to adopt it instead of the one I had been using for a long time. The gear warning came on to save me on my second flight with the new procedure.

2. I had a engine emergency in the clouds over the Rockies that required a diversion. Made it to an airport and landed. I know I didn't use a checklist to land and don't have an actual memory of consciously deploying the gear. Of course, I don't recall deploying the flaps either. Best I can figure, I put (or was mentally prompted to put) the gear down at exactly the same point in the approach to landing I always did.

3. I was getting checked out in a new airplane. I told the CFI my gear deployment procedure. As we were approaching the airport, the CFI started chuckling. I asked him what he was laughing about. He pointed to my hand, which was hovering and shaking in anticipation over the gear handle. My VFR gear deployment involves the intersection of two events; one had occurred earlier than usual but my body reacted.
 
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FloridaPilot said:
I was going through the FAA accident database and I noticed that the number one reason why planes land on the belly is because people forget to put the gear down and then mechanical. Would a landing checklist prevent this?


As always thanks for your input!

FP
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The number one reason might be the engine is right around TBO......:eek: I can't understand how one could forget to put the gear down. In my bonanza, I can't get to Vfe without lowering the gear, so there's a clue.
 
midlifeflyer said:
To me the key, and one I preach when I teach, is a consistent SOP. One so consistent it becomes a habit. Habits are hard to break. That SOP may be associated with a written checklist, a mnemonic, a flow, whatever, but the key is consistency so that mental (and sometime physical) alarms go off automatically when you don't follow it.

2. I had a engine emergency in the clouds over the Rockies that required a diversion. Made it to an airport and landed. I know I didn't use a checklist to land and don't have an actual memory of consciously deploying the gear. Of course, I don't recall deploying the flaps either. Best I can figure, I put (or was mentally prompted to put) the gear down at exactly the same point in the approach to landing I always did.
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When you landed what happened to the engine? Did one of the cylinders fail?
 
My airplane came with a weld in the step (which hangs down in front of the wing). I figured it was the sign of a gear up. A few years later I ran into a mechanic who had previously worked on my plane. He told me that it wasn't actually a gear up. The owner had hit the step and done a go around. They managed to find the snapped off piece and weld it back into place. A friend's Navion had a welded step as well except his seemed to have lost about six inches in length in the process making that first step a reach.

Years later a friend gave me his old step (he had installed a rear step on his plane, the later Navions extended the wing walk over the flap so you could board from the rear. I had it chromed and installed on my plane. My old step was going to go to replace the shortened Navion's but I found another friend who had no step at all on her plane (she had been given a stool with a rope tied to it to board the aircraft). Turns out in addition to the step it was missing the bracket inside the fuselage it mounts to.
 
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
The best thing is to have a horn that beeps when you throttle back with the gear up - that way there is no way you can screw up.
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This video is reposted all the time with comments about the pilot's stupidity in not hearing the gear horn, but it's obvious to me the gear has failed to extend and the pilot was well aware of it.

After the plane stops on the runway, he gives it an "oh well" shoulder shrug. There's no appearance of surprise whatsoever.
 
3393RP said:
This video is reposted all the time with comments about the pilot's stupidity in not hearing the gear horn, but it's obvious to me the gear has failed to extend and the pilot was well aware of it.

After the plane stops on the runway, he gives it an "oh well" shoulder shrug. There's no appearance of surprise whatsoever.
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If that's the case, he failed to run the gear up landing checklist. The doors should be open and electrical system off "when landing is assured."
 
MAKG1 said:
If that's the case, he failed to run the gear up landing checklist. The doors should be open and electrical system off "when landing is assured."
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Is it possible that the sparks from the gear up can cause a fire?
 
FloridaPilot said:
Is it possible that the sparks from the gear up can cause a fire?
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I guess in theory if the conditions are right. That's why one SOP includes using up fuel when one knows a gear up landing is going to happen (i.e., mechanical reasons).

But that said, I have never come across a report of it happening. Come to think of it, I don't recall coming across a report of a gear-up that was anything other than a non-event except for the obvious damage to the aircraft and a bruised pilot ego. Anyone?
 
Theboys said:
I would say a checklist would help. Ive heard it said that one of easiest ways to forget is to have something, passenger or arc interupt your flow when going thru your landing procedure...
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I vote for this.

Local airport had a Bo I often rented gear up. Pilot had turned final when a Citation or equivalent took the runway and spooled up in the opposite direction without talking. Bo pilot cleaned up, did a nice 360 on final to allow the jet to clear, and resumed his sequence to land right where he left off. Only without the wheels down.
 
For my gear-up we made sure to get the master off on short final, and mixture/fuel off as we settled. Was a non-event, ultimately, smoother than my normal landings in the Arrow :D
 
Katamarino said:
For my gear-up we made sure to get the master off on short final, and mixture/fuel off as we settled. Was a non-event, ultimately, smoother than my normal landings in the Arrow :D
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What happened, was it mechanical or "oopsie"
 
FloridaPilot said:
What happened, was it mechanical or "oopsie"
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Sounds mechanical. The "oopsie" gear-up landings don't involve turning off switches on short final. They happen more like this: Gee, I feel like I'm sitting a little lower than usual when I land. I wonder if the runway is wider than I thought and I flared too high? Oh...darn.
 
iamtheari said:
They happen more like this:
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I know someone whose only indication was "tick, tick" as the gear door(s) did the curb-feeler thing on the runway, he powered up and went around for a second go at it with the gear down. (electric failure, gear not fully deployed 1st time, did full manual extension on next attempt)
Result was a flyable a/c with minor damage.
 
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