Airplanes with retractable landing gear generally provide increased airspeed, something that all pilots treasure. A novice views this feature as pure simplicity: Move the landing-gear selector up after takeoff; move it down before landing. It involves more than that.
Landing gear retraction techniques generate strong opinions among pilots, who occasionally demonstrate incredible acts of stupidity. Two such acts are pilots who want rapid gear retraction after takeoff. Some have raised the landing gear selector before starting the takeoff roll, counting on the landing-gear safety switch to start the retraction as soon as the airplane’s weight is off the applicable wheel strut. Others, when flying some high-wing airplanes, raise the gear lever the instant they’re airborne. The main wheels then drop down about three feet in order to be in position for retraction into the aft fuselage, but when they drop in this case, the wheels hit the runway and drag the airplane back down to an embarrassing and expensive accident.
Other pilots delay landing-gear retraction until the remaining runway, in their opinion, is insufficient for a safe wheels-down landing should the engine fail—but how do they make that determination? No one practices or has performance charts for that action, and I recall an accident when two flight instructors were practicing it in a light twin. Unfortunately they landed extremely hard, drove the main wheel struts up through the wings, and received major injuries.
That supports my observation of flight instructors during the hiring process. I’ve never met or interviewed one who was insincere, but I have known many who were misinformed, which is the result of faulty training. I, too, was in that situation as a young instructor, before U.S. Army flight training screwed my head on straight.
The Army also taught me about in-flight emergencies: Use normal procedures and techniques as much as possible. Obviously some modifications must occur, but when an emergency procedure—particularly one that seldom can be practiced—is totally different from your normal actions, the chances of success are greatly diminished. If, however, your actions are somewhat close to what you do normally, the chances of success are greatly enhanced.
With respect to departures, it’s obvious that when departing on a 10,000-foot runway, there is a short time when a safe, power-off, gear-down landing could be made. But extremely long runways are seldom the case. I always consider the options. What if I made a hard landing and went off the side or the end of the runway? Our light airplanes are tough in the air, but unable to withstand impact damage. Takeoffs usually mean a full fuel load and minimum performance. What if I twisted the fuselage, could not open the cabin door, and a fire started because of a ruptured fuel tank? I would never expose myself to that situation.
Consider this: Before takeoff, I checked the airplane’s logbooks and maintenance records and completed a thorough preflight inspection and engine runup, to ensure the airplane’s airworthiness. Then, just after liftoff, the engine quits (extremely rare), I don’t have a lot of runway ahead, and I will not expose myself to the aforementioned hazards. Therefore, I retract the landing gear, make a belly landing, slide a few hundred feet, open the door, and get everyone off the airplane. In other words, a perfectly good airplane slapped me in the face, so I slapped it back. My passengers and I are safe and, yes, the airplane is damaged. So what? The airplane started the fight, and I ended it.
A smart pilot wants to obtain a safe altitude as soon as possible after takeoff. The fastest way to do that is a rapid acceleration to the best rate of climb airspeed, VY, followed by a VY climb. At the safe altitude—where a forced landing option exists—pitch attitude is decreased for a cruise climb using climb power.
For the fastest acceleration to VY, retract the landing gear when a positive climb is apparent using visual, outside-the-cockpit references, and maintain the liftoff attitude during the acceleration. This is critical for multiengine takeoffs, where you must minimize the time between raising the landing gear handle for gear retraction and achieving VYSE, the single-engine, best-rate climb speed. For landing gear extension, I use the old saying of “Gear down, go down” (increased drag) to start the descent from traffic pattern altitude, or from an instrument approach’s final approach fix. And then, to be fail-safe, I try to review the GUMPS checklist three times if possible: Gas, Undercarriage (gear), Mixture, Prop, Seatbelts. That’s good insurance against untimely distractions that may cause a gear-up landing. Ouch!
Ralph Butcher, a retired United Airlines captain, is the chief flight instructor at a California flight school. He has been flying since 1959 and has 25,000 hours in fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft. Visit his Web site.
