Preventing Gear-Up Landings

Ryan Motte

Wednesday, December 22, 2021 at 03:26 PM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

Gear-up landings are costly and primarily result from pilots "forgetting" to extend the landing gear, rather than mechanical failures.
Pilot forgetting is often triggered by a chain of factors including changes in routine, task saturation, distractions, fatigue, and desensitization to warning alarms.
Prevention heavily relies on strict adherence to Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), consistent checklist usage, setting hard minimums for stabilized approaches, and maintaining pilot proficiency.

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I have been around the airport water cooler for two different gear-up landings. The first was either a classic excuse or truly unfortunate set of circumstances. After touching the belly of the aircraft to the pavement without a nice, cushy set of wheels between the two, he hopped out of the airplane and declared that the reason he landed gear-up was due to a bee in the cockpit. I never asked if he was allergic to bees, but either way, if his story is true, that little insect caused a lot of damage.

The second story involved a pilot who evacuated his aircraft believing he selected the gear down and it must have collapsed when he landed. After the dust settled, he looked inside the cockpit and found the smoking gun; the gear handle settled in the up position.