Check Gear!

[Dream to fly]

How do you slow down if you don't put your wheels down? If I don't have gear down I know it. The plane is moving way to fast for flaps.

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[M20F-1968]

Agree that consistency is important.  GUMPS out loud abeam numbers, base and final or at IAF and final.  I grab the J bar and pull down at least 1 time to insure the thumb lack is engaged.  I also installed the P2 warning system a yer ago.  It is a good back-up to the afore mentioned.  If gear is down, a male voice says, "Gear is down for landing." If gear is not down, a female voice says repeatedly "Gear!  Gear!  Gear!" until you fix the problem.  The P2 unit talks to me at 85 kts airspeed.  Well worth the $2000.

John Breda

[Seymour]

When considering buying into the partnership, the owner took me up for flight around the area (I didn't have a complex endorsement).    On short final, I was respecting his 'sterile cockpit' but had to ask him afterwards:    What was that last Callout on Short Final??

He thought for a minute, chuckled, and then explained it.    "Green Light, Green Thumb, Landable Aircraft"

He called out GUMPS at midfield downwind and GEAR on Base.  ...but on Final, he rechecks both the Gear Light  "Green Light" and then tries to jam his right thumbnail into the gap between the J-Bar and it's retainer.   If there's no gap, that's a "Green Thumb" and the gear is properly locked down.   It's one of several habits I'm adopting from him. 

I'm still considering the investment in the P2. 

[Guest]

14 hours ago, David Lloyd said:

6000 Hours between Mooney and Bonanza, the landing gear always went down entering the pattern (little airport) or at 1000' above touchdown (big airport).  Always. 

Now after 8 years in the RV, I have finally got out of the habit on short final of checking, then saying out loud, "three in the green."  Hope it doesn't take that long to get back in the habit!

I hop back and forth between the RV4, the 150 and the Comanche.  In the fixed gear airframes I still use the GUMP check but it’s Gas, Under carriage (down and bolted) mixture and Prop. 

Clarence

 

Edited December 15, 2018 by M20Doc

[FloridaMan]

Twice in my F did I kick myself, but never have I landed with my gear up. I was always in the habit of doing the fingernail check on the Johnson Bar repeatedly. Then I flew for 10 hours at 11,000 ft one day and landed at ABQ with a slight quartering tailwind as directed by the tower. After clearing the mountain ridge from the east I had to do a 270 to the left to get low and slow enough to land instead of a 90 degree to the right. As I’m in the flare I am stuck pulling on the throttle trying to slow down because things didn’t seem quite right. Fatigue, altitude, and the higher than I was used to groundspeed had me thinking I needed to pull power. As I settled onto the runway I thought “Oh fuck: my gear!” But, having the mental conditioning earlier in the approach to have been aware that shit was nonstandard, I had already put it down early as a precaution. Noticing something unusual in an approach should be an automatic “go ahead and drop the gear” cue. 

The second was at an uncontrolled airport in Florida. There was a foreign helicopter student who couldn’t accurately or consistently report where the hell he was in the vicinity of the field and a Cessna on a long final invited me to go ahead of him. On base I wondered why I had trouble slowing down. My cycling hand found the missing gear handle on base. 

My general rule is to keep my speed up and to slow aggressively, drop the gear as soon as possible, and to not pull power to slow anywhere near gear speed until I do it aggressively and drop the gear as part of the transition. 

[GDGR]

2 hours ago, M20F-1968 said:

Agree that consistency is important.  GUMPS out loud abeam numbers, base and final or at IAF and final.  I grab the J bar and pull down at least 1 time to insure the thumb lack is engaged.  I also installed the P2 warning system a yer ago.  It is a good back-up to the afore mentioned.  If gear is down, a male voice says, "Gear is down for landing." If gear is not down, a female voice says repeatedly "Gear!  Gear!  Gear!" until you fix the problem.  The P2 unit talks to me at 85 kts airspeed.  Well worth the $2000.

John Breda

Makes you want to put the gear down, just to avoid that nagging wife voice. 

[gsxrpilot]

2 hours ago, M20F-1968 said:

If gear is down, a male voice says, "Gear is down for landing." 

I'm always expecting Sam Elliott to let me know the gear is good for landing, as I'm turning Final and slowing to the final approach speed.  Passengers always get a kick out of it, and often believe me when I tell them it's Sam.

[Hank]

The check of the floor indicator on final has saved me twice; hopefully checking the light over the runway will remain just a habit . . .

At least there is only one light, unlike other brands with three gear motors, three lights and the opportunity to land with one or two wheels reetracted. Mooneys always land with all three wheels in the same position, up or down, except for the unfortunate few who have actually broken rods in the gear system. There is no possibility of "missing" one green light because we only have one.

I will say this:  with the gear up on a long, curved, descending GPS approach in the clouds, you can be on speed or on glideslope, but even cranking in more than normal flaps will not let you do both. Even VFR, if Tower sends you 15 miles out before turning you inbound, descending goes much better when you finally remember to drop the gear (at idle, full flaps, ~150 agl over the numbers and Tower blathering about expediting off the runway). Putting the wheels down will salvage the approach, make a normal landing and not block the runway and upset the many planes descending behind you.

[midlifeflyer]

One of the things I teach when I do complex transition training is that you never want to hear the gear horn in normal flight operations.

 I tell my students tongue in cheek it's because their boyfriend, girlfriend, life partner, spouse etc will hate the sound no matter how you explain it and won't fly with you again. But the real reason is two-fold. It means you have not planned the descent to the pattern adequately. And hearing a "warning" regularly diminishes its effectiveness as a warning.

[Brent]

Nobody is immune. I know a long-time, high-time pilot who had a gear-up landing a couple years ago. He had been instructing in fixed-gear planes all day. Flew his personal retractable a few miles back to his home airport. Got distracted by people he knew in the pattern. Perfect landing - except gear up. You can imagine how he felt after that semi-sudden stop and all that came after. 

Appreciate all the tips above. I'm one-year in, and I think a lot about how to have enough consistency to avoid what has happened to many better than me. Closest I have come thus far was in closed pattern when the speed never got real high; there was some distraction - bird, balloon, traffic, or something. I'll use some of the short final tips here posted here.  

Edited December 15, 2018 by Brent

[Robert C.]

One of the nice things about the G1000 is that you can set a ‘minimums’ altitude (even when not flying an approach) and when you hit that altitude the nice lady pipes up...”minimums, minimums.” My pre-descent checklist includes setting this minimums level at 500 AGL and when the warning call comes I do another GUMPS check.

Robert

[Sixstring2k]

16 hours ago, EricJ said:

As long as the gear doesn't automatically extend itself, it can be forgotten.   No process or pilot is infallable.   Knock on wood is right.

Two multi-thousand hour pilots in the front seats, gear horn is blaring the whole time, even goes into frantic mode at flare:
 

 

No checklist what so ever, very complacent cockpit. 

[0TreeLemur]

17 hours ago, EricJ said:

As long as the gear doesn't automatically extend itself, it can be forgotten.   No process or pilot is infallable.   Knock on wood is right.

Two multi-thousand hour pilots in the front seats, gear horn is blaring the whole time, even goes into frantic mode at flare:
 

 

I find the gear up warning alert extremely annoying.  It creates a level of anxiety in me kind of like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cVlTeIATBsI cannot wait to put the gear down to make it stop.   Does anyone make a device wherein a hand comes out of the panel and smacks the pilot?

 

[gsxrpilot]

5 hours ago, midlifeflyer said:

One of the things I teach when I do complex transition training is that you never want to hear the gear horn in normal flight operations.

 I tell my students tongue in cheek it's because their boyfriend, girlfriend, life partner, spouse etc will hate the sound no matter how you explain it and won't fly with you again. But the real reason is two-fold. It means you have not planned the descent to the pattern adequately. And hearing a "warning" regularly diminishes its effectiveness as a warning.

My primary and instrument instructor taught the same thing. He said never to sit and listen to the gear horn. When it comes off, stop what you're doing and turn it back off. Turning the gear horn off involves either extending the gear or increasing power. Either is fine, just don't sit there and let it ring. The last thing you want is to get used to hearing it ring.

[midlifeflyer]

19 minutes ago, gsxrpilot said:

My primary and instrument instructor taught the same thing. He said never to sit and listen to the gear horn. When it comes off, stop what you're doing and turn it back off. Turning the gear horn off involves either extending the gear or increasing power. Either is fine, just don't sit there and let it ring. The last thing you want is to get used to hearing it ring.

Off-topic but interesting - this is the same concept which led the FAA to change "slow flight" in the ACS and started so much controversy.

[bonal]

6 hours ago, midlifeflyer said:

One of the things I teach when I do complex transition training is that you never want to hear the gear horn in normal flight operations.

 I tell my students tongue in cheek it's because their boyfriend, girlfriend, life partner, spouse etc will hate the sound no matter how you explain it and won't fly with you again. But the real reason is two-fold. It means you have not planned the descent to the pattern adequately. And hearing a "warning" regularly diminishes its effectiveness as a warning.

While I agree with the comment on an inadequate plan for descent when you are flying in the flat lands but that does not always apply when flying in and around mountain terrain. As someone that will always try to fly as high as practical for maximum safety is very common to have to drop a lot of altitude with not a lot of distance to do it in. This requires pulling power way back and with a steep descent you get a lot of speed. This brings me back to my comment about my ASI as my primary gear down instrument as the challenge is to get it to gear speed. My reduced power will always go to the point where the warning horn comes on but as soon as it does I will add just enough power to shut it off so as not to diminish its effectiveness. 

[midlifeflyer]

14 minutes ago, bonal said:

While I agree with the comment on an inadequate plan for descent when you are flying in the flat lands but that does not always apply when flying in and around mountain terrain. As someone that will always try to fly as high as practical for maximum safety is very common to have to drop a lot of altitude with not a lot of distance to do it in. This requires pulling power way back and with a steep descent you get a lot of speed. This brings me back to my comment about my ASI as my primary gear down instrument as the challenge is to get it to gear speed. My reduced power will always go to the point where the warning horn comes on but as soon as it does I will add just enough power to shut it off so as not to diminish its effectiveness. 

Based on 20 years flying and 12 of them  teaching in Colorado, I guess I'll disagree with you on that. Those closer in descents were a reason for me to start slowing and putting the gear down earlier to take advantage of the increased drag.

Edited December 15, 2018 by midlifeflyer

[N201MKTurbo]

If I need to pull power to slow to gear speed and it makes the gear horn go off I always put my hand on the gear switch and don't take it off until I put it down.

It is usually lapses in power planning, but sometimes ATC induced. Never say never, but it is to be avoided.

[jaylw314]

20 hours ago, Junkman said:

I'll offer, "Short Final, Good Gear" on the last crosscheck of the PAPI/VASI or the threshold disappearing under the nose.

Repeat that about 1000 times to get it ingrained into your brain, and then use it every time you land. Fixed gear or retract. I'm firmly in the camp of SOPs that you use every flight in every airplane. Its worked for me for a lot of years, and caught an oversight on one recent occasion that I can recall. Not a guarantee, but it will create a situation that doesn't feel right if you miss the check. I've gone around for less than that. I'm hoping that it continues to work for me for a lot more years.

Cheers,
Rick

I was taught to do the "midline gear check" on short final, but I've changed that to a mental and verbal callout of "Gear white and green".  I think back to a couple accidents I read about where someone went through a checklist touching each item, but managed to left the mixture out because they had got in the habit of touching each item without verifying them.  I'm hoping the verbal callout of specific colors will keep me from doing that

18 hours ago, Dream to fly said:

How do you slow down if you don't put your wheels down? If I don't have gear down I know it. The plane is moving way to fast for flaps.

Sent from my E6810 using Tapatalk
 

If you're one of those people who descends by using the prop, it is fully possible to get appropriate descent rates.  I'll do enroute descents and even descents to airport at 15-20" MP and 1900 RPM, especially if the air is bumpy at all--my wife hates turbulence.  In fact, you'd decrease RPM faster than MP to keep heat in the engine, so by the time you're done, the throttle may not even be close to setting off the gear warning.  I'd vote for doing it a little earlier or a little later.

[jaylw314]

4 hours ago, Robert C. said:

One of the nice things about the G1000 is that you can set a ‘minimums’ altitude (even when not flying an approach) and when you hit that altitude the nice lady pipes up...”minimums, minimums.” My pre-descent checklist includes setting this minimums level at 500 AGL and when the warning call comes I do another GUMPS check.

Robert

Unless you're in the soup at minimums, trying to find the runway, and trying to follow the approach lights down.  At that point, you may be so task saturated that that may not be a good time to remember or do a final gear check

[Robert C.]

2 hours ago, jaylw314 said:

Unless you're in the soup at minimums, trying to find the runway, and trying to follow the approach lights down.  At that point, you may be so task saturated that that may not be a good time to remember or do a final gear check

When you are flying an actual approach the callout takes place at the actual minimums for that approach. If you’re still in the soup then you’d better go around. Only when you don’t have an approach loaded/activated can you set and get a self defined minimums callout.

[xcrmckenna]

I’ve sent an email or two to Foreflight asking to add gear down alert in their set up options. I would like it to call out just after the 500’ alert.


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[Hank]

1 hour ago, Robert C. said:

When you are flying an actual approach the callout takes place at the actual minimums for that approach. If you’re still in the soup then you’d better go around. Only when you don’t have an approach loaded/activated can you set and get a self defined minimums callout.

Dropping gear starts my descent--dot and a half above glideslope or at FAF. Usually. Sometime before then I put out Takeoff flaps. When distracted, anything goes . . . . The joys of being human!  

[EricJ]

7 hours ago, Fred_2O said:

I find the gear up warning alert extremely annoying.  It creates a level of anxiety in me kind of like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cVlTeIATBsI cannot wait to put the gear down to make it stop.   Does anyone make a device wherein a hand comes out of the panel and smacks the pilot?

 

Like the old Mooney Mite wigwag thingie?
 

 

[carusoam]

The mite video needs a copy in the mite section....

Still wondering where all the mite pilots are going.

Best regards,

-a-