As unlikely as it might seem, a series of events have unfolded at my home airport over the past year that are sometimes embarrassing, occasionally maddening, always expensive, and often preventable.
I’m talking about gear-up landings. I’ve seen three over the past few months, live and in person.
For those who are keeping track, three is a lot.
It would be easy to blame the pilots for these short, unpleasant slides down the runway. And many do. Sometimes with reason.
Let’s be honest: When the workload is high, the distractions are plentiful, and the poor human at the controls is tired, it’s easy to forget to move that one little switch that will make the difference between a squeaker and a scrapper of a landing. Yes, forgetting to run those memorized pre-landing checklists can be a problem.
I’m not pointing fingers, though. While I haven’t yet touched down on pavement with my wheels up, I’ve come close. The experience gave me humility, a quality that is not valued nearly enough.
In my case, I was flying into my home airport in an AirCam fitted out as an amphibian. This was before electric switches and pumps were common to extend and retract the wheels hidden inside the floats. Gear extension and retraction was managed by manually operating a pump lever mounted on the floor near the pilot’s right foot. No easy feat, I’ll tell you. It took a lot of up and down strokes to get that gear from one extreme to the other.
I pumped the gear up after departure in anticipation of landing on a series of lakes. But with the elation of this wonderful flight coming to an end, coupled with my unwise decision to chat casually with my instructor about things that were not pertinent to landing, I missed an important step in the process.
To this day I can still hear my instructor in my ear as I descended on short final, “Let’s go around.” I did. Then he said something curious, “We were just going to make a lot of sparks anyway.”
For about 10 seconds I wondered what he meant by that comment. Then it hit me. Thank goodness he was there to save me from a story I would have found embarrassing to tell forevermore.
I’d still tell it, of course. That’s what I do. I tell stories. But each time I accessed the memory I would relive just a bit of the shame I felt that day.
A simple GUMPS check would have resolved that problem. A habit I learned early on when flying twins, but one that I let drift away as I spent many years flying aircraft with gear that could only fold up if involved in a violent impact. Gas, Undercarriage, Mixture, Props, Seatbelts had been my traffic pattern mantra for a time. I never should have stopped using it, but I did. That was poor judgment.
Of course, that commitment to an automatic response can be troublesome, too. I once made the mistake of doing a GUMPS check prior to landing on a lake in an ICON A5. I’m a big fan of the ICON and have felt privileged every time I’ve gotten to fly one. In this case I had been shopping for a retractable gear airplane for a period of time and shifted into that automatic response when entering the pattern.
“Gear down for landing,” I announced as I got myself established on downwind. The instructor pilot I was flying with gave me a curious side-eye and asked, “Are you sure?” That’s when it hit me. I was landing on water. I needed to do a GUMPS check, but the G part needed to be headed in the other direction. “Gear up for a water landing,” was the more appropriate response.
At least one of the gear-up issues I saw locally was the result of a gear collapse. It happens. One or more gear legs extend, but don’t lock. After touchdown, on rollout, the unlocked gear leg simply gives in and folds up. The sudden bank and loud scraping sound make it clear to all far and wide what happened. But not why it happened.
Was it a maintenance issue? Perhaps the pilot didn’t have three green lights on the panel. Maybe the lights were green, but the locks failed. Or maybe the wear and tear of regular use over many years simply provided enough slack in the system that otherwise good-looking parts were no longer able to remain aligned sufficiently enough to work collaboratively as they were designed to do.
There is a very human tendency to be judgmental when bad things happen. What did the pilot do wrong? What would I have done differently?
Of course, in our imagination we are always the one wearing the white hat. The good guy. The infallible practitioner of whatever skill we feel was lacking. In reality we’re as prone to error as the next person. Our machinery can fail just as easily as anyone else’s. Any one of us can suffer a brain fade, and we would be wise to acknowledge that fact — at least to ourselves.
With a smattering of compassion I can admit that while I might feel embarrassment or shame over the shortcomings I’ve exhibited while flying, there is no benefit to any of us foisting those negative emotions on others who have had a bad day.
The truth is pilots can adopt procedures that, if followed, would prevent most gear-up events. We should, too. Fewer insurance claims result in lower insurance costs. Fewer gear-ups also means fewer runway closures. Everybody wins.
While we can never prevent all gear-related incidents, we can have a positive impact on the overall number of belly landings that come to pass each year. The key is personal responsibility. Be the PIC.
I’ve been lucky enough to avoid the issue to this point in my career. But that was luck. In each case, someone saved me from myself.
Now, I try to be more careful, more focused, more professional about my checklists. It’s easy and pays off big time in embarrassment protection. That works for me.
You have to take flying seriously. Complacency is your enemy. This is why most of the kids instructing are clueless. I know they have to build time and it sounds ugly but it’s true. You can kill your self and others in a Cub as easily as a airliner if you don’t discipline you flying habits. Sad part is you need an old school instructor and that’s hard to find. It would help to have a sterile cockpit (No talking) on take of and landing. Know the planes performance and have a written check list for take off and landing. It will not help if you don’t use it religiously. On landing after your check list as you get close use GUMP for a back up. It covers everything that is essential. By the way G is not gear. G- Gas (pumps on, proper tanks on) U- Undercarriage this is your gear. M- Fuel mixture P-props full forward. Take pride in being serious because you life or plane depends on it. Long time pilots have become complacent and they are no longer with us.
Holy smokes! I made this comment before reading the comments. The airline pilot was spot on. For some of you guys that made comments You can’t fix stupid
You have to take flying seriously. Complacency is your enemy. This is why most of the kids instructing are clueless. I know they have to build time and it sounds ugly but it’s true. You can kill your self and others in a Cub as easily as a airliner if you don’t discipline you flying habits. Sad part is you need an old school instructor and that’s hard to find. It would help to have a sterile cockpit (No talking) on take of and landing. Know the planes performance and have a written check list for take off and landing. It will not help if you don’t use it religiously. On landing after your check list as you get close use GUMP for a back up. It covers everything that is essential. By the way G is not gear. G- Gas (pumps on, proper tanks on) U- Undercarriage this is your gear. M- Fuel mixture P-props full forward. Take pride in being serious because you life or plane depends on it. Long time pilots have become complacent and they are no longer with us.
From the first flight in an RG plane onwards, I always do GUMPS and a visual check, if possible. Fixed gear, the spoken response is “Down & Welded”. RG, it’s actually pointing and replying “Three green” (or two green in the case of my present ship).
A long-ago study by Aviation Consumer noted that gear-up landings with modern Mooneys occurred at a normal rate, but they couldn’t find a single case of it happening with the old manual gear ones. Their guess was that being such a big production, with clearing the path for the swing of the long lever and using big muscle to swing the gear, the routine was less forgettable. Too, the lever and gear lock were right under the throttle/mixture/prop quadrant and next to the pump for lowering flaps. Not impossible to forget, I’m sure, but more difficult.
While I can understand missing gear down or up in an amphib, are pilots missing the gear up warning horn that blares on final upon reducing manifold pressure in a conventional retract airplane?
In my experience, it has given me ample warning as it is loud (even with a headset on) and annoying to listen to.
Perhaps we should add an “L” to GUMPS (GUMPSL) to emphasize “Listen”.
I turn on my fuel pumps after gear extension. They are loud enough you can hear them operating, on short final hearing them is a last minute verification the gear is down. I also verbalize “stabilized, gear down” when I get a 500’ warning in my headset.
I use GUMP. The problem with GUMP is the time between each step. Easy to forget one of the steps, usually the prop. Since this is the last step and you have to wait till the RPM is low enough so as to not surge the engine, it’s easy to forget. I use “gas” just prior to entering the pattern. Depending on the plane, gas means several things to do. Fullest tank, fuel gauge, selector in the exact correct position, fuel pump on or off as required, I do this prior to steep turns, don’t want to un-port. Don’t want to slip if needed with low fuel.
Undercarriage is less complex. Don’t take long to do and confirm. Do this early in the pattern. The problem is remembering to do gear three times. Down wind, base,final.
Mixture. Unless you have been close to pattern altitude you probably have been managing the mixture while descending.
Propeller. Probably the least risky, unless you do a go around.
Landing is difficult…so far wheels down-reduce power has worked for me.
The many comments about “GUMPS” support exactly why I NEVER use it, because you have to remember what each letter of the acronym stands for, a totally unnecessary step.
This is what I’ve been using for 50+ years and recite out loud prior to each landing, often more than once:
“Fuel on proper tank, boost pumps on, mixture rich, prop set, gear down and locked”
There’s no wondering what the letters of the acronym stand for, and each item is checked as it is recited.
I learned GUMPS with the S being ‘speed’
Whether I’m in my straight leg 182 or the 330 I get to fly for work, (not much of GUMPS applies to the airbus, but I do it anyway) I run GUMPS through my head before I get to 1000’. Whatever you learn, use it. Every single time. You’ll get to where you’ll have a nagging feeling that something was forgotten.
Every Single Time
I’ve been an instructor for fifty years and every student I’ve had starts off on the very first flight (in fixed gear planes) checking “gear down” when on final. To make this lesson sink in I give them a visual image of their grade school teacher, ” Sister Mary,” shaking a ruler in his face when he said something stupid in fifth grade. “When you see the end of the ruler staring you in the face (the end of the runway) Sister Mary is telling you to check gear down!” “Pramacy ” is one of the main principles of learning and things learned first are remembered best. No matter where you may check your gear, always check it again when you see the end of the runway pointing at you on final. I don’t know why all Instructors don’t teach this way.
On BASE—>FINAL turn
Say:
Final’s clear? Landing gear?
Out loud.
(That’s in addition to the GUMPST checks)
On final at 200 – – 300 feet check for 3 green lights. & no red lights , just a glance. If a red light is seen go around. Depart the pattern to troubleshoot.
Oops. Busted.
Thanks for catching that, Doug Crane. You’re exactly right. I’ll be more careful next time.
I’ve been enjoying this article! Over 40 years ago, when I was working on my Comm/Instrument, my instructor David Murphy kept me distracted on final. I was so embarrassed at the time that it has stuck with me all these years! David earned his salary that day.
Combine that and recent events with my personal airplane’s nose gear. When you enter the airport pattern and it takes more than 30 seconds before all three green lights illuminate, your attention will be elevated. So much so that every gear down operation becomes a big event. We have since rebuilt the gear actuators and replaced a couple of micro switches and the gear down operation takes very little time.
This is not a claim that a gear up landing won’t happen to me, but I feel that my interest in the operation of the gear warrant’s more than a casual glance at the gear handle. If you keep your hand on the gear lever until all three are locked into place, your attention will be focused where it should be. Just my two cents worth…
I wonder where David Murphy is today?
Small point, but in one paragraph above you mention “the G in GUMPS should have headed the other way.” You should have referenced the “U”.
Oops. Busted.
Thanks for catching that, Doug Crane. You’re exactly right. I’ll be more careful next time.
You said “G” is for Gas. Later you change to “G” for Gear. Maybe time to edit story?