Quite a few learning points from this incident

[Ned Gravel]

OK.  If we are talking about trying stay out of the left column (those that have) for as long as possible, my wife saw the possibility of changing my status six years ago and made a suggestion that I have used ever since.  I think her suggestion was for her own peace of mind, but it works for me too.

As soon as the gear comes down, I do a GUMPS check and touch all the appropriate switches/knobs/bars as I say each one aloud and finish with "GUMPS Check Number 1 Complete."  Left hand turns on the fuel pump, then right hand pushes on the bar to confirm it is locked in the block, the mixture knob is pushed to full rich, the prop knob is pushed to full fine, and my seatbelt is checked as being latched.  All this nearly autonomous motion has become cockpit muscle memory and is as much physiological as it is psychological. 

Then, either between the IAF and the FAF or on the downwind, I do it all over again - out loud and finish with "GUMPS Check Number 2 Complete."  Then on final or just after the FAF, I do it again - also out loud and finish with "GUMPS Check Number 3 Complete."  At this point the aircraft is in the landing configuration with me just waiting to have to go round for some reason or other.

If my girl does not hear them, she tells me about it.  She normally hears every time.  Even on the occasions I have not said it out loud, the cockpit muscle memory had kicked in and I was moving fingers and arms over switches, knobs and levers as I confirmed all in their correct place.  

Pretty silly talking to yourself when you fly alone I know, but I am working to stay out of the left column.

[Skates97]

8 hours ago, Ned Gravel said:

Pretty silly talking to yourself when you fly alone I know, but I am working to stay out of the left column.

I don't do three checks, but I do say it out loud even when I'm alone. Doing everything the same every time instead of changing it up depending on who is in the plane I think is a key to staying out of the "left column."

[EricJ]

8 hours ago, Ned Gravel said:

Pretty silly talking to yourself when you fly alone I know, but I am working to stay out of the left column.

I say checklists like GUMPS out loud as I think it helps reinforce the routine.   But, then, I talk to myself other times, too.   Sometimes it's the only intelligent conversation I get all day.

[MyNameIsNobody]

13 hours ago, Shadrach said:

It's distraction that gets people and upsets their process. It won't happen to everyone, but it will happen to a lot of people that think it will never happen to them.  

That’s a BINGO.

[Bartman]

If I am on an approach then I do the GUMPS check when the glideslope is centered and/or time to start the descent. That's when I always put the gear down. I don't go full rich, but since I descend from cruise remaining LOP and by that time end up very LOP then I usually enriched just a touch until running smoothly but that has already been addressed when I'm leveling off for vectors or maneuvering. I'm usually about 2450 RPM in cruise and don't go full prop either, just leave it where it is. If I'm VFR the the Gear comes down with the GUMPS check at 45 deg when I turn to base, every time. When on short final I do one last check regardless of VFR or IFR. 

I agree if procedures and checklists are used, then distraction by whatever means is the enemy.  

[bradp]

I don’t want to go to the right Column but know it’s quite possible.  

I split my checks into three fwiw- gump/ Landing check. Gear light.  

500 ft “gear down” / glance down 

Short final gear light down just before round out.

The times ive really needed to be wary is doing things that are not in my usual “profile” - doing something unusual is ipso facto a distraction.  Example is power off 180 to the runway practicing commercial maneuvers.  In this case the gear horn squawking can result in short term alarm fatigue.  To counter this I leave my hand physically touching the gear switch until I select it down and then back to business as usual. 

The hardest part is sometimes recognizing “I am being distracted” or “this is not my usual method/profile” and brining that to the front of your attention.  

 

[carusoam]

Talking through checklists out loud actually has a name... they call it 'verbal mediation'.  Known to be helpful for memory challenges...

If Somebody looks at you funny, you tell them you are practicing your verbal mediation skills....

Best regards,

-a-

[Mooneymite]

The same distraction that makes a pilot forget the gear will make him forget the checklist and all the other incantations and manual mumbo jumbo that he “always” does. 

The real solution is technology. Despite millions of landings and zillions of distractions to dead tired pilots, when was the last time you read about an EGPWS airliner landing gear up?

While religious GUMPS is a great crutch, technology, not mumbo “GUMPo”, is the solution. 

[TonyK]

One of my favorite CFIs would constantly fiddle with stuff in the airplane or otherwise do things to distract me while I was flying.  Play with the radios, intercom, instruments, open sectionals fully or even just dig through his flight bag.  He was worse than having a 3 year old in the airplane and when I first started flying with him it would drive me nuts.  It did teach me to pay notice to what the guy in the right seat was doing but not to let it pull my attention from my primary task.

 

[kris_adams]

On 1/16/2018 at 10:29 PM, Bob_Belville said:

The cliche/slogan should be taken very seriously. 

Very good point.  I definitely think it could happen to all of us (including me of course).

[steingar]

I worry constantly about a gear up, as I am a very distractible person.  However, Had difficulty in mastering the J-bar, so there is a bit of emotion when I sawing it, enough to make it very memorable.  At least, that's what I hope.  

[zaitcev]

On 1/16/2018 at 9:02 PM, steingar said:

The point, oh arrogant macho man, is that humans are by nature distractable. And if you really believe you are immune I could commit suicide by climbing to your ego and leap down to your IQ.

There's no need for personal attacks just because you screwed up. It is an indisputable fact that some people are better than you or I.

Edited January 21, 2018 by zaitcev

[chrixxer]

the mixture knob is pushed to full rich

 

That's how I was taught, too, but coming into land at Heber City one July afternoon (DA was 9500+), that's been amended to "mixture - set." I almost flooded it going full rich; the engine definitely stumbled more than I was comfortable with!

 

FWIW I'm religious about running GUMPS and verbalizing it - much to the annoyance of a Cirrus owner I fly with ("undercarriage: down and welded"). I'd had my complex endorsement for a year and probably a hundred or more landings in retracts, when I had a J-bar Mooney and was on my way into Long Beach. First the tower had me circling for spacing. Then they called my go-around because they'd cleared a jet to take off on an intersecting runway. Then they shuffled me around in the pattern. Finally, they cleared me to land behind a Cessna ... and then called another go-around: "No gear." Definitely a wake up re distraction and second and third checks...

 

 

 

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[Ned Gravel]

9 hours ago, chrixxer said:

 

That's how I was taught, too, but coming into land at Heber City one July afternoon (DA was 9500+), that's been amended to "mixture - set." I almost flooded it going full rich; the engine definitely stumbled more than I was comfortable with!

 

FWIW I'm religious about running GUMPS and verbalizing it - much to the annoyance of a Cirrus owner I fly with ("undercarriage: down and welded"). I'd had my complex endorsement for a year and probably a hundred or more landings in retracts, when I had a J-bar Mooney and was on my way into Long Beach. First the tower had me circling for spacing. Then they called my go-around because they'd cleared a jet to take off on an intersecting runway. Then they shuffled me around in the pattern. Finally, they cleared me to land behind a Cessna ... and then called another go-around: "No gear." Definitely a wake up re distraction and second and third checks...

 

 

 

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Thanks Chrixxer:

Very good point and makes sense to me.  I have actually had only one or two instances where the DA check in the pre-descent checklist caused me to modify that setting for my mixture knob - one into Springbank, Alberta (Elev 3,940' MSL), one into Sedona, AZ (Elev 4,830' MSL) and one into Albuquerque (Elev 5,354' MSL) the last two during our trip west in 2015.  During these descents I take quick glances over to my JPI and the EGT readings, occasionally unscrewing the mixture knob to keep them up over 1300 or so throughout.  At low power settings I am no longer worried about the "red box" but I do need the mixture to be lean enough to work.

If you have a quicker way to ensure sufficient leaning at higher DA, I am all ears.  BTW:  I am not really keen on the "richen it up until it stumbles and then pull it back a little" method.  Like you, that scares me.

[Yetti]

"If you can't slow down, your gear is probably not down"

One of the advantages of doing the pattern faster than normal is if you don't get the gear down, you will never get it slowed down.   I usually am  have to pull up a bit to get below the gear speed, then dump the bottom speed brakes for the rest of the U turn to land.   The Flight review guy told me 3 times to slow down.

What I leaned in mtn biking is when you are going slow is when you crash.   If you go fast you stay alert, on task and don't crash.