Those Who Have and Those Who Refuse To

Monday, December 21, 2020 at 03:28 PM ET

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On The Cover: It's rare to see a pilot who inadvertently flies his pride and joy to a gear-up landing, and who wants to talk much about it, especially in public. But that's exactly what John Dalman's article beginning on page 16 does. It's a tale of acceptance, introspection and determination it won't happen again. Image by the author.

Key Takeaways:

A pilot experienced a gear-up landing due to a series of human factors including "get-home-itis," distractions in busy airspace, and a non-standard approach that led to confusion about the aircraft's configuration.
The subsequent FAA reexamination process was a professional and valuable experience for the pilot, affirming his flying skills while highlighting areas for improvement in decision-making and procedural discipline.
To prevent recurrence, the pilot committed to more diligent GUMPS checks at every phase of flight and adopting a "gear before flaps" procedure to eliminate configuration ambiguity during landing.

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Editor’s note: The following is a first-person account of an inadvertent gear-up landing and its aftermath, written by the incident pilot and adapted from a series of posts at BeechTalk.com, an online resource for Beechcraft owners and pilots of all aircraft types.

On August 5, 2020, I landed my much-loved Beechcraft F33A Bonanza gear-up at my home airport. What follows details my interpretations of the causes and lessons learned from this incident, and its aftermath, in the hope my fellow pilots can learn from my mistakes. By way of background, I earned my private certificate in 1986, adding the instrument rating a couple of years later. I now hold a commercial certificate with single- and multi-engine land ratings, plus the instrument rating.