So, back to my love of
aviation. There still are a lot of landing gear accidents( LDGA). Everyday
someone manages to damage a nose wheel or forget to lower the gear. If you read the
FAA accident reports, it is euphemistically called “gear collapsed”. How hard is it to move that gear handle to
the down position? Not hard at all, but it has to be in the pre landing protocol.
Mooney pilots seem to like to forget to push the handle into the down position. Not
sure why as I haven’t flown one for a long time. The nose wheel thing still seems
to be due to a bad landing attitude (too much pitch down). Maybe some more practice
emphasizing the flare would help.
The way to combat the
(LDGA) is to plan ahead and follow the checklist meticulously. Use some pneumonic
A cute one is GUMPS. This stands for
gas, undercarriage, mixture, pumps, switches.
You get the idea. Anything
that works for you-the PILOT. But you must use it religiously. I remember
always verifying the gear being down by saying “three in the green” on base, final and just before touching down.
One last area I want to briefly discuss is the
instrument approach . Reading
over the stats of when accidents occur, the approach phase stands out. In the
approach phase I include everything between en route and landing. The five
phases of flight are: take off, initial climb, en route, approach and landing. My
goal is to alert the budding IFR pilot and remind those farther along about
hazards to avoid, as well as to offer some advice how to stay ahead of the
game.
I was going to take us on
a simulated IFR flight into a major airport such as Chicago Midway. But as I find
myself short of time, I will only touch on the important points , and plan to
go into more detail at a later time. In a nutshell, it is necessary to really
study the approach plate in great detail. Entry points, course headings and
altitudes in particular are very key. One can’t just rely on the digital tools
to do it all for the pilot. You must be prepared for all the eventualities such
as holding, go arounds and missed approaches. Alternate airports also have to
be chosen in advance. This latter point was discussed in an earlier Blog.
That’s it for now. The IRS
is calling
Fly well and stay safe.
