LPL.Saturday.29.10.2011.

[L1011]

Hi All.

W61311/WZZ1HS Warsaw HA-LPJ A320 Wizz Air sch 0645.

Thanks to FlightRadar24.com

Alan Jones.
Liverpool,U.K.

[Sabreliner]

The only visitor for the match today is G-FRYI Beech 200 King Air.

[Hunter]

Arrow N2943D will be arriving this afternoon.

[cdhaslam]

N2943D is Barton based. Would have been quicker to walk..

[lfsflyer]

Arrow N2943D nearly made an entrance to remember today ! came in with the gear up ! luckily the pilot spotted it and done a go around :/

[Speke-EZY]

Early Cherokee Arrows were famous for lowering their landing gear automatically if the airspeed dropped below a certain value. They were aimed at a market niche where most pilots were expected to have only flown fixed-gear types before and therefore might forget! Obviously this idea was abandoned on later models.

This evening's Wizzair W61011/WZZ1080 shows on Libhomeradar as HA-LWC.

[Hunter]

cdhaslam, N2943D is now based at Liverpool. The group will be operating from here for the foreseeable future.

[cdhaslam]

Hi..yep.. N2943D left Barton today. Shown as leaving residence.. Posted on Barton Movements Didnt see it reported it as a New redsident??

[Biggles]

No landing gear deployed ? does that mean there are no pre landing checks to be done which include that basic requirement when landing on tarmac or anything other than water that is or was it possibly a LAGO being performed and it may have been deliberate knowing that a full stop landing was not happening bit risky.

[viscount]

I cannot comment on the circumstances of the incident that has triggered comment as I was not there.

If you look at the monthly AAIB bulletins for as many years as I have, initially on paper, now on the web, the Cherokee Arrow apears to have been involved in more unintentional 'belly landings' than other types. While the Seneca seeming to be prone to unintentioned leg retraction. These are gut observations, not scientifically counted fact though.

It is also true that at this time of year, in the evening, in the hour or so before sunset, the low bright red setting sun is directly in the pilot's eyes, making both visual approach and cockpit instrument checks very difficult. A couple of years back a private owner put his Cessna 182 down in the undershoot of 27 amongst the lights and attributed the accident on the AAIB report to the power of the sun near the horizon, directly in his eyes down the centre-line. I have no idea if this played a part on Saturday, but distractions come in many forms. One of the reasons for an airliner having both crew involved in completion of check-lists.

From the reports on the forum, it would appear that while the pilot may have been distracted on his initial landing check list, he clearly ran through the important items again on late finals. Sounds like he was saved from a most embarrasing call to the insurance company by good training from an instructor when learning for his PPL.

The age old aeronautical joke, reflects that PPL are taught to consider 'undercarriage down and locked .. three greens' as part of the landing check-list even when flying a Cessna 150 or Tomahawk. Due to high pilot workload on a 'talk-down' radar controlled approach, ATC will ask the pilot to confirm 'three greens' as a routine part of the proceedure.
ATC: "Golf Charlie Delta, confirm three greens"
G-ABCD: "Charlie Delta, undercarriage down and welded"
A joke with a message.

I can only recal just once, that I have watched an unintentional undercarriage not lowered incident. Possibly over 10 years ago now, at a fly-in at Wellesborne Mountford. A Long Eze (fixed main wheels, retractable nose wheel) was observed on very late finals, over the piano keys, with nose leg retracted. Several photographers lept over the enclosure fence waving madly to make him go-around. He landed with very little damage (other than to pride), however apparently later blamed the photogaphers for distracting him !!

Incidently, Biggles, pilots on a low approach and go-around will lower flaps, undercarriage, adjust engine power etc as part of the exercise until a pre-determined decision height, at which point take-off settings are applied. Otherwise it would be a fly-by or fly-past or fly-through, or in military terms, a beat-up!

[Hunter]

Talking about low light. When the panel lights on the Arrow are on, it dims all the other equipment lights (including the undercarriage indicator lights) making it hard to tell at a glance if you have '3 greens'. He realized when on finals that the gear was still up, and had time to put it down but opted for the safe option of a go around.

Commercial traffic and a new airport can dramatically up the work-load of a pilot.