Yesterday I flew out to Eastsound airport on Orcas Island and as I taxied up to my tie down spot I see a group of people milling around a Cessna on the ramp with a crane attached to it supporting the plane in the air as if it was being loaded or unloaded on a truck or something. I wondered to myself what the heck was going on. Can anybody guess?? That's right, they were lifting the plane into the air so....they could lower the landing gear of the Skylane RG. I will omit names and numbers, etc; as I'm sure the pilot in question has suffered enough of a bruised ego as it is.

Turns out this was a rather recent acquisition and the owner had been flying a 152 for many years and well....you know how that goes. Can anybody say "GUMP"? Anyway, another hard lesson learned to use them check lists, cuz the belly you scrape, may be your own. So, lets all remind ourselves what GUMP stands for: Gear down, Undercarriage down, Main gear down, Put the gear down stupid!

I know they're aint a lot of gear handles on the planes that most of you BackCountry guys/gals fly, but still a good reminder to use checklists.

I wouldn't have my 180 if my previous partner would have used the checklist. I would still be figuring out how to strip and reseal the wet wings of a Mooney...

I am preferring "Gear down and welded..."

Rod

Gas, undercarriage, mixture, prop. There is more than gear to the checklist.

"There are those who have, and those who will."

Mike

Wa180 wrote:I wouldn't have my 180 if my previous partner would have used the checklist. I would still be figuring out how to strip and reseal the wet wings of a Mooney...I am preferring "Gear down and welded..." Rod

180's looking good, Rod-- congrats!

I knew my limitations. I avoided gear that moved. Or anything complicated enough to need a checklist.

mike b wrote:
"There are those who have, and those who will."

That's one of the worst quotes in aviation "evah" that's the same thing as saying your going to crash in a fixed gear airplane...makes no sense. Use and follow the checklist and an accidental gear up won't happen ever.

"There are those who have, those who will, and those who will again." That comes from an aviation insurance adjuster. I also think it's bull--barring a mechanical reason, there aren't any acceptable reasons for it to happen once, let alone more than that. That doesn't mean that I couldn't do it, just that there wouldn't be any acceptable reason for doing it.

Whether you use Whynotfly's version of GUMPS (which is pretty cute!) or Mike B's version, getting the gear down is the most important part of it. I flew retractables long enough that for the longest time after I bought my airplane, I still found myself reaching for a gear handle and looking out the window to make sure I could see the gear. I've gotten out of that habit now, so if I were to fly a retractable again, I would be ultra-religious about checking the gear.

But that being said, there are a number of YouTube videos in which you can hear the gear warner blaring in the background, and yet the pilot still lands and scrapes to a stop. The most obvious reason appears to be some sort of distraction--chatting with the passenger, having to do a go around so that the normal flow is interrupted, etc.

When I flew retractables, I had the "do GUMPS 3 times" philosophy. In a normal pattern, that meant once each on downwind, base, and final. On a base entry, I did it on a 2 mile base, then at the normal mid-base position, then on final. And on a straight in, it was at 2 mile, 1 mile, and short final. The closest I came to a gear-up was when I couldn't get the gear down light on the TR182, so I had to land anyway; that was caused by a misadjustment of the gear down/squat switch on the nose gear.

Cary

I had an interesting paradigm shift a while after the ink dried on my license. I have always religiously read the NTSB reports for similar aircraft to what I fly and in similar places to where I go. I became fairly fascinated, for a while, by the stupid pilot things I read about.
Somewhere along the way in my flying career, I realized that I had now met quite a few pilots, maybe in the hundreds, and none of them were stupid. In fact, most of them seemed quite bright, often much more so than I might hope to be. It was around then that I realized that this was a prime opportunity for me to end up being interesting reading for others. Worse, those are the others who I respect and who I don't want shaking their heads as they read about me.
I now frequently write the NTSB report in my head, then change the plan, grab the checklist or do my best to pick a better path. Then, I give thanks to the equals or betters before me who have provided those opportunities to learn from.

What's that expression?
Oh yeah, learn from others' mistakes, you don't have enough time to make them all yourself.

I've heard it said that pilots like to talk about accidents, thinking to themselves "I'd never be dumb enough to do that".
Well, many good sticks have proven that it can & does happen to anyone.
Thinking about what someone else did wrong, however, just might make you think twice before getting into the same predicament in the future..

I approve of the tone of these remarks. It's nearly the same way I talk to myself in my effort to keep from doing something that could embarrass, injure, or kill anyone.

Yep, I do the same thing, imagining my pre-trip actions as a dramatic narrative preamble to that show "I Shouldn't be Alive", or NTSB report as a sort of extra gut check if I'm covering everything or am about to do something potentially stupid. Glad to hear I'm not the only one!

An old Sheriff in a small town in South Dakota once give me a ride to my plane after waiting out some bad weather. His admonition to me as I got out was "Don't make me read about you in the papers!" which has kind of stuck with me.

I use GUMPs every landing. In a fixed gear, I use the "undercarriage" constituent of the mnemonic to remind me to test the brakes for pressure prior to landing.

Years ago I had my right brake go out on a short no go around landing in my 170 and ended up looping it and putting it on its nose. Had I checked the brakes first, I would have flown to a big airport and rolled to a stop, avoiding the accident.

Came pretty close a couple of times!!
After helping find the pilot who tried to swim to shore after landing with the wheels down. He cut himself up pretty exiting the broken windshield!
Then helping get the airplane righted, and the damaged caused by the recovery team???? (AK Cold Water, airplane 50' from shore!!)
This has scared the Crap out of me so I like Cary use the Gumps on all 3 corners of the pattern!!
Have even aborted about 2' up when that sudden thought of did I put it down runs through the mind!!

AKJurnee wrote:

mike b wrote:
"There are those who have, and those who will."

That's one of the worst quotes in aviation "evah" that's the same thing as saying your going to crash in a fixed gear airplane...makes no sense. Use and follow the checklist and an accidental gear up won't happen ever.

I believe taking the approach that an accident is going to happen is how you avoid it. I agree using the checklist without exception is the way to help avoid an accident, but that will not ensure a "gear up won't happen ever". What about a mechanical failure?

"Fate is the hunter." My approach is to be realistic about the risks. But the idea that even disciplined pilots can avoid all the risks is not born our by the history of aviation. For me believing it can and will happen provides even more commitment to do everything right. Sport flying is sometimes a dangerous activity even when you are really conscientious. That is what makes flying challenging, exciting and rewarding. Mike

BTW, the guilty party in this incident was an airline captain. So, lack of experience can be tossed in this case. Like most of us here, his primary trainer was a fixed gear model as well as the C150 he flew before acquiring the RG.

For some time now I have felt that it would be a good practice to ALWAYS have a "gear (undercarriage) down" as part of the check list from the beginning of training. Why can't primary trainers such as the C150 or 172 have a "pretend" gear knob or switch on the panel to simulate gear down and up procedures, with the thought that sooner or later that student might be making the transition to a retractable. For training purposes it could be as simple as a removable gear knob that you could velcro into place on the panel and use it as a training device in fixed gear planes. This would get pilots into the habit of checking gear position from the get go, verses having to change an old ingrained habit that can come back to bite you when you transition to a retractable. Never make the transition? No big deal, at least you have the habit of using the gear lever if you ever need that habit.

I like the idea of a faux gear handle to ingrain some good habits. In my partners case, the "chain" was long and started as he opened the hangar doors. Knock on wood, I did not have any issues with the "down and locked", and did check it 3 times, downwind, base, and final. A landing checklist was taped to the panel, so having it in front of you does not always have the intended effect. A manual gear Mooney doesn't have that many steps for landing!

Rod

whynotfly wrote:BTW, the guilty party in this incident was an airline captain. So, lack of experience can be tossed in this case. Like most of us here, his primary trainer was a fixed gear model as well as the C150 he flew before acquiring the RG.

For some time now I have felt that it would be a good practice to ALWAYS have a "gear (undercarriage) down" as part of the check list from the beginning of training. Why can't primary trainers such as the C150 or 172 have a "pretend" gear knob or switch on the panel to simulate gear down and up procedures, with the thought that sooner or later that student might be making the transition to a retractable. For training purposes it could be as simple as a removable gear knob that you could velcro into place on the panel and use it as a training device in fixed gear planes. This would get pilots into the habit of checking gear position from the get go, verses having to change an old ingrained habit that can come back to bite you when you transition to a retractable. Never make the transition? No big deal, at least you have the habit of using the gear lever if you ever need that habit.

I don't think it's a bad idea, but it would have to be more than just the lever. It has to have lights to indicate gear up or down and a warner tied to the throttle that screams just like the "real" ones do. Otherwise it's just another useless exercise.

From my own experience, though, if once the pilot has been trained but stays with fixed gear airplanes, that muscle memory of putting the gear lever down, looking for the lights, and avoiding having the gear warner horn go off, will very soon atrophy. As I said, I still had the muscle memory when I bought my airplane 13 years ago, because the most recent airplanes I'd flown included a pair of Arrows and a Mooney, along with a couple of fixed gear airplanes, so I was habitually looking for a gear lever and lights. But within a couple of years, that went away because all I fly is my fixed gear P172D, so that now I don't do that at all. If I were to fly a retractable again, I'd be really, really conscious of the U part of GUMPS!

Cary

So once I knew a guy that flew a big checklist-intensive crewed airplane for his day job. He liked to get in his single-engine bug smasher (SEBS) because he could relax a little bit and have fun. Still, this guy had a before takeoff checklist that he used most of the time.

One day this guy went to a fly-in on another guy's grass strip. Our intrepid pilot carried ropes and a tiedown kit everywhere, but he didn't carry chocks. On this day, our buddy decided to set the parking brake because his SEBS was parked on a slight incline near some other aircraft. He had a great time at the fly-in and soon jumped back in his SEBS for the trip home. He was feeling very comfortable after all the pilot talk so this time he didn't use his before takeoff checklist.

Everything was fine until he landed back at his home airport with a nice long paved runway. As soon as he touched down he recognized that the airplane had an intense desire to go over on its nose. Only through a lot of luck was he able to keep it right side up. After he came to a short stop he recognized that, ooops, he had forgotten to undo the parking brake. Somehow he managed to take off with the parking brake set...

Now my buddy religiously uses the checklist. And, he actually uses it as a "check list" to check things that he has already done, not just as a "do list." He has four flows that he runs before he gets the checklist out:

1. Flight controls free and correct
2. 9 things below the panel checked and set (right door locked, fuel selector valve on both, cowl flaps open, flaps set, trim set, tailwheel lock unlocked, parking brake off, pilot seat secure, left door locked)
3. Avionics panel and instruments checked and set
4. Engine run-up complete
5. Get out the checklist and verify proper completion of all items in steps 1-4

Good buddy of mine... I've learned a lot from him!

I use gumps as well. There has been a couple times on long XC's in the cubs I put my feet up by the seat on the cub and hit the parking brakes. Hit the brakes as gumps and they have popped off


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

whynotfly wrote:.....For some time now I have felt that it would be a good practice to ALWAYS have a "gear (undercarriage) down" as part of the check list from the beginning of training. Why can't primary trainers such as the C150 or 172 have a "pretend" gear knob or switch on the panel to simulate gear down and up procedures, with the thought that sooner or later that student might be making the transition to a retractable. ...

FWIW I believe Piper did have some model of the Arrow that had a phony gear knob.
But (no offense) I think it's a silly idea.
Let's take it a step further- how about a phony prop control?
And a phony turbo boost knob too?