That saying presumably originates in the rental world, but as an owner you might want to be reasonably sure you have insurance in place 
Also not everybody has hull cover. Only 3rd party cover is mandatory in the EU.
And a non-certified plane might have a Vs well above the 60kt SEP limit, so serious damage is more likely, especially if you slide right off the far end of the runway.
As I wrote above, an emergency gear extension is not a memory procedure. Single pilot at night and with low fuel gives you different priorities… The emergency extension on the C340 has it’s own danger: the gear is extended with a fold-out crank under the pilot seat. The moment it unlocks, the combined forces of weight and airflow will try to turn that crank at high speed. If one does not firmly hold it there is a high risk of getting one’s fingers or middle-hand bones broken. Not my own experience, but according to the instructor who introduced me to that plane there have been some cases.
Peter wrote:
And a non-certified plane might have a Vs well above the 60kt SEP limit, so serious damage is more likely, especially if you slide right off the far end of the runway.
The 340 is a twin and certified, isn’t it? Even the Lancair Evolution has “only” 61 kt Vs. That said, I think the runway at Orly is long enough anyway 
what_next wrote:
The emergency extension on the C340 has it’s own danger: the gear is extended with a fold-out crank under the pilot seat. The moment it unlocks, the combined forces of weight and airflow will try to turn that crank at high speed. If one does not firmly hold it there is a high risk of getting one’s fingers or middle-hand bones broken.
Yup, ’been there, done that, sort of… I used to fly a 310Q, whose landing gear system is the same as the 340 (which I flew a little). I spent three stressful hours trying to manually extend the gear of the 310 one cold December afternoon. I had been trained to not practice manual extensions in it, so I never had. When the main system failed (universally agreed, but for reasons never determined) I had to manually lower it. The crank would not fully fold out and lock, and would not turn. After fighting with it or more than an hour and a half, with maintenance advice over the radio, I finally forced it for all I was worth as I headed in the belly the plane in. It released, turning only the quarter turn needed to move down so I could skin my knuckles on the floor, and the gear freefell to three greens.
The next day on the jacks, the gear worked perfectly, reason for failure was never determined. I was never blamed, simply because after two hours on the radio of “try this” and “did that do anything”, and many low passes, so ground observers could view the gear, it was simply not possible for me to have overlooked anything by then.
What made it stressful was that I was flying in light icing conditions, poor VMC. The ’plane was deiced, but we never used the systems, so there was no windshield alcohol in the tank, and one prop boot did not work. The result was a damaged nose baggage door from chunks of ice flying off that one prop blade, and about a half inch of ice all over the windshield. To see, when I finally went to land, I had to scrap ice of the left side of the windshield with my hand out the little parking ticket window. I have long arms, it worked enough to see the left side of the runway.
What an amazing story, Pilot_DAR!
The 340 is a twin and certified, isn’t it? Even the Lancair Evolution has “only” 61 kt Vs. That said, I think the runway at Orly is long enough anyway
The #1 post doesn’t refer to any of those three
Okay, here we go (back to the #1 post)…
The Lancair 320 has a stall speed of 55kt and the runway of Bordeaux (homebase of jojo) has 3100m*45m – but still it’s no twin
Isn’t most of the problem calling it an emergency procedure, when in fact it is just an alternate or back-up way of lowering the gear? I have had three instances when the normal system didn’t work and used the manual system in my own aeroplane, plus two other instances when flying a Cessna 404. If you call it an emergency that’s an invitation for panic to set in, especially with low-time pilots.
I often use the manual system just for practice, it works well but is just more tedious! As I see it the only emergency is when neither system gives you 3 greens.
How common is a manual means of extension and a pneumatic blow down. It is certainly belt and braces.
Recently trained it in a PA28R.
PA28R has a free fall system after hydraulic pressure is released by activating a springloaded lever. For training you need to pull the C/B, select gear down and then press the pressure release lever. Then you need to hope the gear will lock and wiggle the airplane until it does
