I have no experience with the quoted system but we installed this system on our 177RG 15 years ago. I must admit it probably saved my bacon once when practicing short circuits out of my usual pattern…the throttle-driven alert may or may not have saved me. It always worked flawlessly and was IAS-driven.
Never ever had another gear close call in over 1000 RG landings. Made it a habit to re-check, but it is when you get out of your normal pattern that you need to be triple wary…
I think preventing a gear up landing (happening at some point due to pilot error) requires something few GA pilots possess in enough amounts: Discipline. You simply must have enough discipline to do the “final check” no matter what other distractions occur. Then there are mechanical faults.
mdoerr wrote:
Your brain just filters the beep after some time, you stop hearing it. Try to fly on a low power setting for some time to set it off. After a few minutes you don’t take notice of the warning. It can happen to everyone.
I think its exactly this. I never let any warning horn to act too long as brain takes it to background. I bet that this crew had as a standard that gear warning is on.
There is also lack of thinking and feeling. I do for my Mooney customers for example practise to approach for landing without gear. To show them that it’s not really possible to maintain any approach speed as aircraft is just speeding up much. They also recognized that they are too fast and what? No conclusion here? .
It can happen to everyone but this guys did a lot to have a problem..
So no proper product on the market which warns according to ground proximity?
The first thing I always do is: put that gear down. Only if the gear is down and green do I proceed with my landing checklist. And I have learned to feel and hear the gear coming down. This is number 1. The last thing I do over the TDZ is: check for that damn gear. If I do not see my green light and don’t feel it, I go around. The gear just makes such an incredible drag and noise and the trim has to be set, that it’s quite hard NOT to notice it.
But, yes, in the end it can catch everyone. That’s why I keep my insurance.
And then another thing is that lots of RG (or RU in EASA land) – planes have to be flown quite on the spot. So you need some discipline an the numbers. I have around 800 meters of runway (640 m LDA) so if I don’t nail the speed I won’t do a good landing. All in all it’s a matter of discipline to do it right.
