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Eclipse Jet lands gear-up

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BoilerUP

BoilerUP

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Joined
Nov 11, 2003
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ALBUQUERQUE (AP) - Eclipse Aviation says pilot error caused one of its test jet airplanes to make a belly landing at Albuquerque's international airport. The Albuquerque-based company says there were no mechanical or electrical problems that caused the airplane to touch down Saturday with its landing gear retracted. Company president Vern Raburn says the airplane will fly again. Eclipse has five test jet airplanes. The company is developing the Eclipse 500 -- a twin-engine, six-seat airplane. Raburn has said the company wants to achieve Federal Aviation Administration certification next year. Eclipse plans to sell the airplanes for about $1.3 million each.


Every retractable gear airplane I've ever flown (ESPECIALLY the turbine ones) has a gear warning and/or configuration horn based upon the position of the power levers. I would imagine that even test aircraft have the same system. Is that correct?

But for the grace of God go I...but if a professional pilot lands with his gear up in this new VLJ I'd hate to see what happens once owner/operators start transitioning from their Barons and Mooneys...
 
You make a good point. Even if there wasn't a warning horn, what kind of professional test pilot forgets to put the gear down?
 
Wow, I hope that none of you ever make such a mistake in your career. I guess that most of you who are dogging this guy must have went to Riddle or some other pilot factory so you are immune to screwing up. Do you think the guys that have actually done it ever thought they would make such a simple mistake as forgetting the gear? :rolleyes:
 
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I prefer the message:

L/G Gear Not Downlocked

Always a helpful reminder when you forget to be a pilot, use SOP, or checklists. You know, when the crap hits the fan.

I'd guess that the test airplane doesn't have fully operational warning systems yet.
 
I flew a King Air 200 for a time doing air ambulance work. I visited one rural airport frequently, and at night, always flew the VOR approach for terrain. One night, rough weather kept me busy, single pilot, on the approach. I always put the gear down at the VOR. I don't recall what was different this night, but I was surprised when I found myself with the runway in sight, and a gear warning. I dropped the gear and it was uneventful, but the honest truth is that despite a religous verbal reading on the checklists even when flying single pilot, I missed the gear. Would I have landed without it? I don't know. I usually check it five times before landing, out of habit. But I missed it up to that point.

Perhaps just as disturbing when I reviewed what had happened later, was the feeling that since I was past the VOR, the gear must be down...at least being that far into the approach, convention and too much familiarity told me the gear was naturally down because I always put it down at the VOR.

I don't at all believe in "there are those who have and those who will," though I've seen some VERY experienced pilots land gear up in a variety of equipment...but I also believe that nobody is "immune," that complacency is dangerous, and that no matter how great your certification and experience, every one of us stands the same chance of having a failure (pilot or aircraft) every single time. All the more reason to be vigiliant.
 
Forgetting the gear in a test plane? You woulda thunk that Eclipse would have devised a computer model to test the belly durability of the plane instead of actually going through the exercise.

Ouch. At least now they know how much it's gonna cost to fix that particular mishap.
 
SkyBoy1981 said:
have went to Riddle or some other pilot factory so you are immune to screwing up.
Click to expand...
Yep, I'm perfect. I never make mistakes, never will, and I'm much better than you.
 
Reposted again from the original, with emphasis this time.

BoilerUP said:
But for the grace of God go I...but if a professional pilot lands with his gear up in this new VLJ I'd hate to see what happens once owner/operators start transitioning from their Barons and Mooneys...
Click to expand...
 
SkyBoy1981 said:
Wow, I hope that none of you ever make such a mistake in your career. I guess that most of you who are dogging this guy must have went to Riddle or some other pilot factory so you are immune to screwing up. Do you think the guys that have actually done it ever thought they would make such a simple mistake as forgetting the gear? :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Sounds like sombody has a gear up landing on their record???
 
BLing said:
Sounds like sombody has a gear up landing on their record???
Click to expand...
Nope, I have nothing on my record. I do, however, realize that I am human and capable of making even the most obvious of mistakes, and I'm not foolish enough to criticize those who have been less fortunate.
 
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I know a guy that geared up his comanche. He got it fixed and took it home. After flying around for a few hours around the airport HE DID IT AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!
 
I suggest some of you look up hubris in the dictionary.

Anyone can make a mistake.
 
Flyin Tony said:
I know a guy that geared up his comanche. He got it fixed and took it home. After flying around for a few hours around the airport HE DID IT AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!
Click to expand...

Funny you mention that Tony, the same thing happened at my airport to a black dude in a 210. He just got it fixed and did it again the next day.:eek:
 
I suggest some of you look up hubris in the dictionary.
Click to expand...


Hubris (Hu bris) n.: 1. The circumcision of young males named Hugh. 2. Greek Goddess who was noted for her lack of restraint, patron saint of my ex-mother-in-law. 3. Those who have, and those who will.

Hubris Deplanum (Hu bris De Plan em) adv: The act of performing a circumcision on young males named Hugh while executing a gear up landing in a fixed wing aircraft, and then exiting quickly without causing further injury. See Malpractice.
 
"Originally Posted by BoilerUP
But for the grace of God go I...but if a professional pilot lands with his gear up in this new VLJ I'd hate to see what happens once owner/operators start transitioning from their Barons and Mooneys..."


Never done it....yet.

I could see it happening under test flight conditions when there's alot going on. Doesn't excuse him, but it explains what happened.

And I know it's different when you're burning JetA, but flying fast/slippery piston airplanes, throwing the gear out is the best way to get slowed down into approach speeds without being heavy handed on the throttles and shock cooling the engine(s).

My old Bonanza had a gear speed of 125 kts, and a flap speed of 100.

I had to shift my thinking with the 340 with a flap speed 15 kts faster than the gear speed (160/145), but still....if you make a habit of being light on the throttles....throwing the gear out is about the only way to stabilize an approach speed.

Then, there's the GUMP check, that gets run thru 3x while in pattern, with one final look for the green lights when crossing the fence.
 
The guys that I know who landed gear up followed the checklist...the company pulled the CVR, and sure enough, there it was..."Gear down"..."gear down, 3 green".

Guess that's what 80+ duty hours in 4 days can do to you :(

Fly safe!

David
 
MauleSkinner said:
The guys that I know who landed gear up followed the checklist...the company pulled the CVR, and sure enough, there it was..."Gear down"..."gear down, 3 green".

Guess that's what 80+ duty hours in 4 days can do to you :(

Fly safe!

David
Click to expand...

Is that really following the checklist, or is it just going through the motions?

-mini
 
There are many ways of accomplishing a checklist, but perhaps the most common mistake, as the saying goes, is using it as a "do" list. Merely because something has been accomplished IAW the checklist doesn't mean it's been done, and it should be individually verified and checked anyway.

Landing gear and flaps should always be two calls...each pilot should be making the call. If it's a single pilot cockpit, then that pilot needs to keep making the call.

Even when flying single pilot, I still do the checklist out loud, and I still do it as though someone where there with me. I do it challenge and response...I read the challenge, verify that it's done, and respond verbally. I find that this exercise helps ensure that I'm really it, vs. skipping down the checklist. In a single pilot airplane that has a CVR, I also find it ensures I'm on record as having at least performed the checklist.

I know a crew that destroyed a P2V after landing. They had a gear emergency, and utilized some of the best minds in the industry, some of the most knowledgeable people on the planet with respect to that airplane, to resolve it in flight. They did everything, and then some, and determined that the gear was down, and landed. A crew drove onto the runway, did a visual inspection, followed them to the ramp. No problems at all. On shut down, the left main gear retracted back into the nacelle, the left prop hit the ground, the radome was crushed, and the fuselage broken in half. Part of the prop nearly decapitated the assistant director of maintenance, who was standing nearby.

With all those minds involved, all the manuals, all the paperwork, all the references available to the flight crew and the ground crew...the one thing they all missed was the checklist item that required them to pin the gear after landing, before engine shutdown. As the hydraulic pressure bled off and could no longer hold the gear, it slowly retracted, and the aircraft was destroyed. Nobody got hurt...but one little checklist item would have made all the difference.

Just like every accident or incident...usually just one little weak link in the chain.

For the want of a nail, a horseshoe was lost. For the want of a horseshoe, a horse was lost. For the want of a horse, a rider was lost. For the want of a rider, a battle was lost. For the want of a battle, a war was lost. For the want of a war, a nation was lost, and all for the want of a horse shoe nail.

Little things, big effects.
 
Minitour, as a pilot who has never landed gear up, and who has a lot of single pilot experience, I can tell you that you are criticizing people whose jobs you do not yet totally understand. You see the clinical training environment where it is usually easy to do everything to standards and where it is rare for an error to go uncorrected. After hours at the yoke in bad weather by yourself and with no autopilot, it could be very easy for even an important thing to slip. Your day doing something dumb in the cockpit will come, as it has for most of us. You will probably catch it in time and it will be uneventful. You will, hopefully, recall your very judgemental post here and realize that even a flawless aviator such as yourself can make errors. This is called maturing.

I'm not trying to bust your balls here, just pointing out that it is easy to snipe from the sidelines about a job that you have not done yourself. Wait a while, you will make plenty of mistakes in your career.
 
I'm not critcizing. Just adding to the "There are those that have, and those that will".

I don't agree with that at all.

To say that 100% of pilots either have or will land gear up is a pretty tongue-in-cheek statement...just like "and those that use checklists". I guess that wasn't recieved like that.

It is my belief, however, that using checklists will enhance your chances to not land gear up.

Anywho...don't take my comments as a slam. I'll be the first to admit mistakes happen. I'm just trying to ingrain the importance of using checklists...all the time no matter what kind of equipment you're flying. From a big heavy to a little cub...use the checklist. It helps to minimize the mistakes. That's my message.

However, the comment about people landing gear up after saying "gear down three green" I stand behind 100%. If the gear handle was still up when they grinded to a halt, then yes...they were going through the motions...not using a checklist. Other than that, how many 100s of things can go wrong with a gear system? I can think of 10 things right away on a 172RG...and it's a light trainer! But not putting the handle down and then actually checking for 3 green...I don't know...mistakes happen, but that's a pretty big'un.

Your after school special is over...

-mini
 
Most turbine aircraft have all sorts of bells and whistles that go off before they will let you land gear up. GPWS "Too low, Gear" aural warning off the radio altimeter, configuration warning with landing flaps selected, and finally a horn when the thrust levers are retarded. I would assume the VLJs are similar.

Who knows how much of that was operational on the test flight. Frequently, non-essential equipment may not be operational, or even installed, on flight test hops. It still all boils down to good pilot practice and multiple cross-checks, and this shows that even a test pilot is vulnerable to the most basic of boo-boos!
 
What's the first thing you do after you land with the gear up?

Put the gear handle in the down position!
 

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