OK, pilots what went wrong?

[PorscheGAL]

I cannot figure out how the pilots of this Trinidad GT didn't know what was going to happen. Even with headsets, they should have heard the landing gear warning buzzer.

Doesn't a Trinidad GT go for about $300K and a prop strike means a mandatory engine pull?

Yikes, that is one expensive landing.




Pilot forgot to lower the landing gear | TakeOffTube.com

[p911dad]

These things happen. It looked to me like a short strip and a steep approach surrounded by hilly terrain, which can cause a pucker factor, especially if the pilot wasn't familiar with the field. I didn't see any checklist being used, maybe that was off-camera. If those were noise-cancelling headsets, maybe he couldn't hear the buzzer sounding. I wonder why the photographer in the back seat didn't tap the pilot on the shoulder (maybe he was wearing a headset also?). Looked like a streak of oil behind the plane, not good. Nice plane, too bad.

[dennis in se pa]

When it comes to pilots who land with the wheels up it is said.....

There those who have.....
And those who will.

[Neilk]

One of the pilots was saying that they got too preoccupied with the plane that was landing ahead of them and then went on to say that he thought they were going too fast as they were coming down, ie, no drag from the wheels slowing the plane down.

Looks like a tricky airport to land at, dive bomb and flare...

[flatbutt]

I once parked my bike without extending the sidestand.

[recycled sixtie]

Yes he looked high on the approach but maybe that was necessary due to the terrain. That was one distraction. Going into a landing strip for the first time can cause apprehension. Perhaps he was conditioned to a fixed landing gear aircraft and this a/c was new to him. It is great to have a copilot who is a seasoned pilot and could have suggested the landing gear. That is why commercial airlines have 2 pilots, an extra set of eyes could have helped. Expensive to fix - damaged fuselage and and an engine overhaul. Pilots are human. Many pilots could be put into a simulator and if they were by themselves you could overload them and they could "self destruct" in the simulator. That is why it is great to have 2 pilots even in a small sophisticated a/c

[944Larry]

He didn't use GUMPS!
Gas
Undercarriage
Mixture
Prop
Safety
Although in all fairness I'm sure it would be spelled differently in French

[Scott Douglas]

From the way they each looked at the other once they were down I'd guess they each thought the other one had lowered the gear.

[widgeon13]

it's expensive to fly in Europe and most pilots have an IFR rating so I'd say they probably are some profession and just too stupid and too rich. Check list would have avoided that expensive repair. They probably thought the camera was out of film.

We had a doctor fly into out strip 3000' and nice sunny day know wind issues. Landed 2000' down the runway, slid off the end. Landed so hard he drove the mains up through the wings and snapped off the nose gear, obvious prop strike. sad thing was, it was the second time he had done the same thing with this plane. No hull insurance, just paid for the repairs out of pocket.

Some people just are not meant to fly airplanes!

[Seahawk]

Checklists are your friends...even with them, I've seen more stupid pilot tricks than you can imagine.

Flight happens.

[944Larry]

I watched that again. From the looks of the terrain at the end of the runway, pancaking it in was probably better than a go-round!

[rattlsnak]

Those wacky French.

[Neilk]

I looked at some other landing videos for Megeve airport and it looks like our pilot came in way high. Compare the approach to this video.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by p911dad

I wonder why the photographer in the back seat didn't tap the pilot on the shoulder

Maybe he didn't know crap about flying a plane. I know if it had been me, I wouldn't have known what the alarm was for (and I would assume that the pilot did and was aware), and I wouldn't want to distract the pilot in the middle of a landing. Now if the alarm had been a voice saying "the landing gear aren't down!!", then I may have been willing to get the pilot's attention.

[herr_oberst]

I'd think a redundant flashing red light might be handy.

[Dantilla]

This video has been discussed at length on an aviation-based forum I visit.

Apparently, the guy in the right seat is an instructor, the guy in the left, the airplane's owner. None of the three remember hearing the gear warning horn.

I have noise cancelling headsets in my airplane, yet the gear warning horn is still obnoxiously loud. not sure how anybody could miss it, other than being totally preoccupied with some other emergency so that the brain is blocking out distractions. This does not appear to be the case here.

The consensus among pilots:

"Baffling"

An airplane like mine will quickly gain excess speed when descending if the gear is not down- The gear is routinely used to slow the airplane down.

Another point- Look at pictures of any airplane that landed gear-up, and the flaps are down. I always put the gear down prior to lowering any flaps. That's SOP with a Bonanza, as the gear helps slow the airplane down to max flap speed. No flaps are used until descending on final approach. The gear is used to initiate the descent- Level flight at reduced power, and I lower the gear when I want to descend, and don't touch anything else- The airplane is then on a nice, stablized approach.

(After stating this, I sure hope I don't land gear-up next week!)

[MarcoB]

You know you've landed gear up when it takes full power to taxi!

[s_morrison57]

eh Tabernack

[sc_rufctr]

I've watched the video a couple of times. That alarm is very obnoxious. How did they miss that?

So what went wrong?

The pilot and the instructor forgot to fly the plane.
Instead they were focusing on one aspect of the landing and that was the approach.

[widgeon13]

If the guy in the right seat was an instructor I'd say his career is done as it should be.