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

[201er]

Speaking of checklists, I'm curious how close pilots have come to having a gear-up in their Mooney. For those who've come close but avoided one, what was the key thing that saved you? A pilot on the ground telling you on the radio? ATC? Gear warning? Checklist? Let's hear about it and maybe we can piece together what's the most effective reminder.

[gsxrpilot]

I can't participate in this poll.  It's very unlucky to speak about a no-hitter while it's in progress.

[201er]

Just now, gsxrpilot said:

I can't participate in this poll.  It's very unlucky to speak about a no-hitter while it's in progress.

Sorry, what? I don't get it.

[carusoam]

It would be bad luck to say how good you are at this challenge.

Yes Mike, some people have a thing for luck.  

Fear keeps me from relying on my memory.

Final approach, green light, throttle all the way out....

The memory only needs to last a minute or two.

Best regards,

-a-

Edited April 28, 2017 by carusoam

[MooneyMitch]

I've had a gear up in my F in 1988.

During my flight review, and while returning the airplane from gear out, full flaps slow flight back to cruise configuration, the electric gear jack screw separated from the linkage resulting in a gear unlocked situation, with gear extended.

Touchdown on the runway was uneventful as all wheels were pushed up into wheel wells. 

I was surprised how fast forward motion ceased once contact occurred!

Hearing and feeling my Mooney scraping along the pavement was not a pleasant experience.

I did receive high marks from my flight instructor for emergency procedures! 

Given this was a known mechanical issue gear up landing, I still consider myself in the camp of "those that have, and those that will"

Carefull out there you all.

[MooneyMitch]

 

"What's the closest you've come to a gear up POLL"........... this is the closest I've ever come to a gear up POLL ! 

[Shadrach]

I fell into "I never" catagory until just a few months ago. I am now in the "gear horn/GUMPS" section. An unneeded and confusing traffic call distracted me while practicing an engine out at FDK.  As I was turning base to final, the plane felt different. I realized what had happened and what I was hearing (bee bee bee bee bee) before my final GUMPS check and terminated with a low approach.  It taught me just how possible it is to become distracted and mentally block out the gear horn when one is receiving multiple distractions at the worst time while in an approach environment.

 

Below is an appropriate and interesting column by John Deakin about almost how he nearly became the only person to gear up a 747.

 https://www.avweb.com/news/pelican/188536-1.html

[DonMuncy]

Going into a towered field, I got unexpected instructions from the tower and was distracted. As it so happened, I had a gear warning alert failure (switch on the throttle slipped out of adjustment) and got no alert. About 25 feet off the ground, the tower told me to go around. I did and they told me my gear was not down. I doubt you have ever heard as heartfelt thank-yous as I gave them.

[cnoe]

In training, short-field approach, last-minute instruction to turn final in front of a WW2 fighter, rushed and high, slipping... my CFI said "go around". When I went to raise the gear I discovered it was already (still) retracted. Never thought it could happen to me until that moment.

Less likely during normal ops but definitely CAN happen.


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[takair]

1 hour ago, gsxrpilot said:

I can't participate in this poll.  It's very unlucky to speak about a no-hitter while it's in progress.

Wish I read this first.  Can I take my vote back?  

[cnoe]

Can't see the "poll" on tapatalk. I'll have to log in on a browser and see the choices Mike's given us. Not sure I'll vote though.


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[Hank]

My closest was on approach to Panama City for the Mooney Summit. The Approach Course is a continuous curve, with lots of points. Got so busy following everything that I didn't notice IAF or FAF, didn't drop gear, couldn't figure out why I could hold glideslope or speed but not both . . . That's a hint that something ain't right.

Broke out at 1000', still high and a little fast, with good visibility I realized what I had done. Gear down, throttle back, nose up, more flaps, couldn't make it so I asked and tower granted a miss from several hundred feet up. Gear up, flew past the tower and made a simple VFR pattern and normal landing.

Hope to not come that close again . . . . .

[Yetti]

In transition training "hey was that a plane in the pattern"   which seemed out of place...  out come the spidy senses...   Go for the gear at threshold.   On base check gear again.  Reach over and push breaker in, then verify manual.  Give the look to transition instructor "I am pretty sure I can take you. Don't ever do that again"

[Marauder]

Speaking of checklists, I'm curious how close pilots have come to having a gear-up in their Mooney. For those who've come close but avoided one, what was the key thing that saved you? A pilot on the ground telling you on the radio? ATC? Gear warning? Checklist? Let's hear about it and maybe we can piece together what's the most effective reminder.

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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[Marauder]

Sorry, what? I don't get it.

Baseball metaphor. It's bad luck to talk to interact with a baseball pitcher that is in a game where they will either pitch a no-hitter or a perfect game. Bad karma.

I also suspect a number of people will not participate because they in fact have landed gear up.


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[jlunseth]

I was practicing power off 180's for my commercial a few years ago at a rural airport.  I usually picked an airport with no traffic and no distractions, but at one airport there was both an ultralight being assembled and readied for takeoff on the grass near the runway, and a fellow in an F who landed while I was in the pattern.  The F guy was obviously doing full stop taxi back landings and must not have been clear about which direction I was going to make the power off, so on the taxiway he reversed course twice.  So between trying to figure out what the F was doing, and trying to keep an eye on the ultralight, I was on short final before I ran my usual mental checklist and also realized I have way more airspeed available than I should have.  I went around.  

After that, if there was traffic at an airport I just did not do power offs there unless I had an instructor in the plane to help watch traffic.

Its the distractions that will get you.

[golfpilot]

I have conditioned myself to always physically look out the window and say gear down on final, but getting distracted is absolutely a real thing. I forget to put gear down on my Flight sim at home more often than I'd like to admit. Usually a plane I'm not used too and one without a gear horn programmed I and usually following some weird sort of maneuver, but it has taught me I CAN forget. So it's just become habit to look and say enough times where my passengers start to think I'm worried about them magically going back up.

[MyNameIsNobody]

Ben Done Movie.  We have people here that think a grand for shoulder harnesses is "O.K.", but balk at spending half that for an audible alarm for gear as well as stall.  You mnemonics, memory touchy talky folks are one weird distraction away from an expensive loud noise that will ruin your quarter.  Those that have speaking to those that will.

[Bob - S50]

T37 as an instructor, but even that wasn't very close.  The student called "final turn gear down touch and go."  Gear was up.  In the T37 the instructor could mash a button on the stick that would prevent the student from hearing what was being transmitted over the radio.  I did that, told the RSU we were gear up and to send us around on short final.  They did.  Student realized his mistake when he went to raise the gear on go around.

I've been lucky.  So far, 7344 landings, only 105 of which were in a fixed gear airplane, and thousands more landings watching either the student, Captain, or First Officer make the landing.  Kind of ingrained to put the gear down at this point.

Remembering to advance the prop control, mixture control, or adjust the cowl flaps?  Not quite so ingrained.  Still trying to build habit patterns.

[flyboy0681]

Garmin Pilot has an "Alerts" feature which can help, but doesn't go all the way. It can be set to display a message that the user types in based upon a few factors, such as x number of miles or minutes from a waypoint. When I remember, I setup a message to popup five miles before he airport which displays "GUMPS". The feature works great but it needs to be setup each time you use the program. I have written to Garmin on several occasions suggesting that the program allow the user to setup default Alerts which can be setup once, but this request has fallen on deaf ears.

[MB65E]

Actually once-

emr procedures in a RG182. Instructor pulled the CB for the gear motor. We were "final glide" to the airport after he gave me an engine failure. I had the runway made. Selected gear down, warnings still going on, sweating, excited we made the runway. At about 250ft, he asked to check gear. No lights. I checked the CB immideatly, pump ran got the greens, and landed. We would have landed gear up if he forgot to remind me. It would have been his rear end. I no longer pull gear motor CB to play with people. 

-Matt

[AH-1 Cobra Pilot]

I do not know how to slow my J enough to add flaps without putting the gear down.  That acceleration-when-descending is enough to make sure I put the gear down.

If you want a real challenge for gear, try flying an amphibian:  4-green for land landing, 4-blue for water landing...am I supposed to move the gear handle or not?  Oh crap!

[flyboy0681]

Just now, Ah-1 Cobra Pilot said:

I do not know how to slow my J enough to add flaps without putting the gear down.  That acceleration-when-descending is enough to make sure I put the gear down.

 

This has always been my ace in the hole for remembering to put the gear down when flying VFR, but when flying IFR and at the FAF, the aircraft is already slowed down and it's much more important to have procedures in place to get the gear down. 

[peevee]

Too hard to get to white arc in the Mooney with the gear up. Need those bottom spoilers.

[Shadrach]

50 minutes ago, Ah-1 Cobra Pilot said:

I do not know how to slow my J enough to add flaps without putting the gear down.  That acceleration-when-descending is enough to make sure I put the gear down.

If you want a real challenge for gear, try flying an amphibian:  4-green for land landing, 4-blue for water landing...am I supposed to move the gear handle or not?  Oh crap!

 

47 minutes ago, flyboy0681 said:

This has always been my ace in the hole for remembering to put the gear down when flying VFR, but when flying IFR and at the FAF, the aircraft is already slowed down and it's much more important to have procedures in place to get the gear down. 

 

Yeah the whole "it's too clean to slow down" thing is not really an ace in the hole.  I think you will find that most Mooney (indeed likely for most high performance singles) gear up landings happen during training and or pattern work.  Depending on what you're doing, you are already slow. 

Indeed you can easily get down to flap speed with the gear up and anyone who does engine out training often enough knows that best glide is well south of Vlo and Vfe in a J (or any Mooney for that matter).  If you're close enough to an airport to try to make it, you keep the airplane clean and trim for Vbg watching your GS to see if the wind is going to spoil your chances. All the while, the gear horn is blaring but you block it out because Vbg requires that you leave the gear up with the power back. After a minute or two the "bee-bee-bee-bee-bee-bee-bee-bee" just becomes another background noise and your're getting acclimated to it.  This is how it happens, not typically at the tail end of a descent form 12,000ft or at the end of an instrument approach.

Hoping the airplane will notify of your mistake is not a great strategy.