Insights

Landing Gear Management

Most people resist change, particularly when a belief, right or wrong, is held with complete confidence. My confidence as a student pilot was directly related to the confidence and logic displayed by my instructor. But as I acquired additional certificates and ratings, I encountered instructors or publications that contradicted some things that I had been taught.

My initial reaction to this conflicting information was denial. How could it be wrong? If it was good enough for an instructor I trusted, it had to be correct. That attitude was a big mistake.

In retrospect, some training procedures simply conflict with practicality. Landing gear management is a good example.

Do you retract the landing gear when a positive climb becomes apparent, or do you delay gear retraction until you feel that an emergency landing on the departure runway is no longer possible? Although some instructors would disagree, I hope that you retract the gear when a positive climb becomes apparent-a visual determination that you make by checking the VSI and looking outside the cockpit when flying in visual conditions.

When instrument-rated pilots take off in poor visibility, they retract the landing gear when the vertical speed indicator shows a positive rate of climb. Immediately after liftoff, however, is probably not the safest time for less experienced pilots to look inside the cockpit.

The primary takeoff objective is to reach a safe altitude as rapidly as practical. Safe altitude is the altitude that gives you a good, gear-down forced landing option in the event of engine failure.

To reach this altitude expeditiously, you must fly a specific departure profile: As you accelerate down the runway and the elevator becomes effective, establish the cruise-climb attitude. When the airplane lifts off, maintain that attitude for maximum acceleration, and when a positive climb becomes apparent, retract the landing gear. At best rate of climb speed, V_Y, increase pitch attitude and maintain that speed.

The safe altitude is usually at traffic pattern altitude or higher, and when you reach it, you should re-establish the cruise-climb attitude, accelerate to cruise-climb airspeed, select climb power, and complete the after-takeoff checklist.

Climbing at V_Y has other advantages. In an airplane with a fixed-pitch propeller, the airplane's engine will not sound as though it's overspeeding and propeller noise will be minimized, an important consideration in today's noise-sensitive environment.

When approaching an airport for landing, do you extend the landing gear at the same point in the traffic pattern or do you adhere to the "gear-down, go-down" philosophy?

If you were taught to use the same point on the traffic pattern's downwind leg as a reference for extending your landing gear, how will you remember to put down the gear when you are cleared for a straight-in or base-leg entry? I hope you use "gear-down, go-down" thinking. This is the best way to avoid a gear-up landing, a frequent occurrence, according to official accident summaries.

Adhering to a plan such as "gear down, go down" is a good start, but that alone isn't enough to ensure a trouble-free approach. You should combine your landing-gear philosophy with a specific arrival profile: As you approach your destination, descend from cruise altitude to traffic pattern altitude at 500 feet per minute (assuming an unpressurized airplane), using the fastest allowable airspeed. High forward speed saves time and money. If terrain permits, plan to reach pattern altitude five miles from the runway.

The distance required for the 500-fpm descent is easy to compute. You multiply the altitude to lose (in thousands of feet) times groundspeed (in miles per minute) times two. If you must descend 7,000 feet and groundspeed is approximately 120 knots (two miles per minute), the descent distance is 28 nautical miles (seven times two times two).

When you reach pattern altitude five miles from the airport, reduce to slow-cruise power and decelerate to slow-cruise airspeed. The reduced engine power minimizes airport noise, and the low altitude makes it easy to spot other aircraft near the airport because you are looking at a sky background and not at a surface background.

When you're ready to start your descent to the runway, reach for the gear handle before you reach for the throttle. "Gear down, go down!" That's your best insurance policy against a gear-up landing.