I just found out that an airplane I used to fly landed gear up today. Everyone is safe.

http://www.kmbc.com/news/kansas-city/plane-with-stuck-landing-gear-makes-emergency-landing/-/11664182/19891402/-/tisjkcz/-/index.html

There is a benefit to not having folding feet, right?

Gear-up landings rarely cause injuries to more than the wallet--but that can be pretty injurious!

Cary

I saw that video a while back of a fella landing gear-up in a twin, filmed from the back seat. Where is scraped down the runway, wore a hole in the fuse, and caught fire!

Why would you choose the seal over grass?????
I saw a Mooney land gear-up on the grass, and apart from the prop (crank?) there was practically no damage to the body. They had 30 guys lift it up, lowered the gear, and rolled it away.

Battson wrote:I saw that video a while back of a fella landing gear-up in a twin, filmed from the back seat. Where is scraped down the runway, wore a hole in the fuse, and caught fire!

Why would you choose the seal over grass?????

A paved surface is strongly preferred to reduce the odds of injure to the passengers. In grass (or trees or water) the odds of the plane coming to a sudden stop and the occupants enduring 100Gs of force is dramatically higher. Land on the pavement, skid to stop, walk away and let your airplane insurance to its job instead of landing in the grass, having something dig in and forcing you to depend on your medical or life insurance.

rw2 wrote: In grass (or trees or water) the odds of the plane coming to a sudden stop and the occupants enduring 100Gs of force is dramatically higher.

Fair point. To be clear I was meaning using the compacted grass runway which is beside the paved one, not soft-turf on a golf-course or some water hazard.

Battson wrote:To be clear I was meaning using the compacted grass runway which is beside the paved one, not soft-turf on a golf-course or some water hazard.

So did I.

If any piece of the fuselage manages to dig into that compacted grass runway, you could stop in inches instead of 300 feet. Would wreck your whole day.

Third option is gravel. I have seen a twin that landed gear up on gravel, where the fuselage barely showed a sign, except for a ripped-off antenna. So pristine it was hard to believe.

It's called insurance so they can pay to fix the F'ed up airplane. Once you have a problem that vessel is to get you to safety.....who cares about the plane! You can't be replaced! If something digs in it can decrease the stopping distance, increase the crash pulse forces and could cause more injury than if you just land on a flat even surface that you know isn't going to cause "diggin in" such as gravel, dirt, grass etc." I took an accident investigation class as well as a crash survival class recently and it really opened my eyes. If I ever have to gear up i'll gear up on an asphalt runway with my engine running just in case I need a go around!

Like Army Aviation, I have avoided complicated aircraft.