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What's the closest you've come to a gear up POLL


201er

Gear up poll?  

81 members have voted

  1. 1. What's the closest you've come to a gear up landing?

    • I have landed where I forgot to put the gear down
      2
    • I definitely put it down but it failed/collapsed
      5
    • I retracted it on the ground by accident
      0
    • I nicked the ground (with prop, step, etc) but went around
      1
    • I remembered to put the gear down in ground effect
      0
    • I realized last moment and went around without touching
      0
    • Someone on the ground alerted me gear wasn't down
      5
    • Someone else in the plane alerted me gear wasn't down
      4
    • Gear warning was the thing that made me realize I forgot to put it down
      6
    • I caught myself forgetting to put it down thanks to checklist
      6
    • I've never, knock on wood, forgotten to put gear down when I intended to
      52
    • I've never forgotten to put gear down because mine doesn't go up in the first place (D model)
      0


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When my C was new to me, I learned that if I pulled down on the unlock handle without pushing the thumb catch, that about an 1/8" of slop was enough to set off the gear warning.  I got in the habit of making sure I seated the handle all the way up in the block when lowering the gear.  Still, the horn blaring when I retarded the throttle turning base didn't impress my wife on her first ride in the Mooney. 

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My procedure and what was taught to me is, never let that gear horn ring. As soon as it makes a sound, turn it off. That's done either by adding throttle or extending the gear. So even if I'm too far out and aren't ready to lower the gear, add just enough throttle to turn it off. Don't ever just sit there and listen to it.

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knock on wood, I've never come close to a gear up in the mooney.  knock on wood again.

I did come awfully close at ATP while getting my multi engine rating.  We were doing touch and gos.  The CFII and I started talking about the HSI, and the tower actually told us to check gear.  :o  Really humbling, but could have been much worse.  

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Why not install an Electronics International AV-17 voice alert.
Clarence


Clarence -- can it be hooked up to our Mooney gear system? I thought it needed some sort of interface to make it work. I am having the AV-17 installed with this upgrade. They are interfacing it with the engine instruments and the Aspen. I saw the gear capability but didn't think to ask if it could be interfaced.


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6 hours ago, Marauder said:

 


Clarence -- can it be hooked up to our Mooney gear system? I thought it needed some sort of interface to make it work. I am having the AV-17 installed with this upgrade. They are interfacing it with the engine instruments and the Aspen. I saw the gear capability but didn't think to ask if it could be interfaced.


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Chris,

According to the EI website it can connect to landing gear etc.

" However, other signals may be received from any warning device that drives a horn or light. "

When I re do my right panel I will be installing one.

Clarence

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22 hours ago, Marauder said:

 


Well Mike, we do know someone who managed to tick, tick, tick his prop and then landed on the wheels. I suspect that is the closest you can come to landing gear up.


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Tick , Tick , Tick , ..... I prefer "Crash and dash "     Yes I dinged a prop , knocked off a Com antenna , and scraped the right inboard flap hinge , before I went around..... I think the common thread you will find is being distracted from routine ,      Once your routine is distracted , all bets are off .....As far as "not being able to slow it down " That is the dumbest response ever ,     ...     EVER ,,,,,      Couple of things ,   In the process of landing you are mentally tasking many things , although the gear horn may go off , cognitively , you may not recognize it ..     Heres my story ... I was practicing landings in my new to me B model .....  Got pummeled buy a huge gust on flare , and started a go around ....Positive rate of climb , raised gear , climbed to pattern altitude , leveled off and threw in the first notch of flaps , then a very uneventful landing , Was absolutely the best smoothest flare ever , seemed to hang in the flare forever , until the prop hit , went around , landed and did the walk of shame back to the hangar........  Couple of suggestions ,   If you have to go around , leave the pattern if possible , and do a standard entry , standard routine ,   If you have an older short body , your gear horn that is behind the panel , is made to mount in the dash , Its called a "Safe-alert" if you mount in an empty panel space it is about 8 times louder , and has a big red light on it ...       

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Looking at the poll tally, apparently I am the only one here who has had a gear up.

I think the old saw that there are only two classes of retract pilots: those who have and those who haven't yet, is more true than you might care to admit.

I had almost 3000 hours PIC in retractable gear planes when I slid it in. Pretty embarrassing. 

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2 hours ago, Bob_Belville said:

Looking at the poll tally, apparently I am the only one here who has had a gear up.

I think the old saw that there are only two classes of retract pilots: those who have and those who haven't yet, is more true than you might care to admit.

I had almost 3000 hours PIC in retractable gear planes when I slid it in. Pretty embarrassing. 

Thank you Bob for sharing. Nothing here is meant to put anyone down. The poll allows people to admit how close they've come anonymously. Perhaps there are folks who don't want to admit to making a gear up or coming very close to it but if more pilots vote honestly, maybe they'll learn they're not the only ones who've done that. Its just an opportunity to learn from each other and possibly evaluate the better fail safes and the less effective ones.

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2 hours ago, Bob_Belville said:

Looking at the poll tally, apparently I am the only one here who has had a gear up.

I think the old saw that there are only two classes of retract pilots: those who have and those who haven't yet, is more true than you might care to admit.

I had almost 3000 hours PIC in retractable gear planes when I slid it in. Pretty embarrassing. 

The Dpe-cfi who examined my first pilot ticket gear upped in his twin when it was him at 14000hrs and a cfi also in the plane.

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Looking at the poll tally, apparently I am the only one here who has had a gear up.
I think the old saw that there are only two classes of retract pilots: those who have and those who haven't yet, is more true than you might care to admit.
I had almost 3000 hours PIC in retractable gear planes when I slid it in. Pretty embarrassing. 


There are others Bob. It doesn't take much to throw a structured approach that would prohibit landing gear up to fail. Just the right distraction at the wrong time.

Like Bennett mentioned, I am a firm believer in the sterile cockpit rule. There is enough going on and I don't need to listen to "where do we pick the rental car up?" in the process. I have even told pilot friends, including instructors, to shut up. If that doesn't work, the "isolate" switch it is.


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20 hours ago, 47U said:

When my C was new to me, I learned that if I pulled down on the unlock handle without pushing the thumb catch, that about an 1/8" of slop was enough to set off the gear warning.  I got in the habit of making sure I seated the handle all the way up in the block when lowering the gear.  Still, the horn blaring when I retarded the throttle turning base didn't impress my wife on her first ride in the Mooney. 

My "gal" says "Check Gear" "Check Gear" when this happens.  I was pulling back on J Bar vs. pulling down on sleeve to confirm down and locked prior to this happening.  I am guessing there were taxi and take-off's without the bar being locked prior to the event by me and my co-owner.

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25 minutes ago, aviatoreb said:

I have the p2-audio warning system which has several different voice audio warnings including a woman's frantic voice "check gear" or a smooth male voice "gear is down" depending on configuration.

Our SAM GPSS module is setup give a "CHECK GUMPS" announcement 1,300 feet above the airport, but like all other items in the panel, I don't trust it enough to come through when I need it the most.

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I never yet forgot to put it down but I had a gear warning in flare (just about at touch down) once which scared the bejazis out of me... Turns out that the Johnson wasn't properly locked but somehow managed to show green anyhow initially. During touch down it appears to have shaken loose sufficiently to trigger the red light and sound, but thankfully stayed in. I immediately grabbed the handle and pressed forward with all strenght I could muster and braked to a stop, then gave it another push up and the warning ceased and it clicked in place.

 

Lesson learnt: really shake and yank that lever on final to make darn sure it is secure.

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