The mission was to transport myself and my wife from the Northeast U.S. to Florida for the holidays. My chosen platform was a well-worn Piper Arrow II rented from a local flying club. This particular airplane wasn’t my first choice, but it beat walking or taking the airlines. After a long week of work and travel planning, we launched late in the afternoon on a Friday and I put the heading indicator on “S.”
As I maneuvered to land at our planned fuel stop, I placed the landing gear handle in the down position at the appropriate time. As part of my pre-landing routine, I completed the cockpit flow and ran through the items on the instrument panel’s printed checklist. All was well until I got to the part about checking for three green lights on the landing gear. I had none.
