Cessna gear up light?

[cosmo kramer]

I flew a Cessna today that I'm not used to flying. When making some touch and goes I noticed that there was a yellow gear up light lit when the gear was up.

Puzzled, I looked in my manual before picking up a passenger. In the manual the gear is only described on half a page and in lange fonts, but says something in the lines of "there are two indicator lights, one for gear up (yellow) and one for gear down and locked (green)". The manual then goes on about other stuff. Not a very detailed description I'd say :rolleyes: But I figured that was the way it was supposed to be and off we went.

The question now is why on earth would you want a gear up light? I'm quite satisfied to know when it's down. Wouldn't it be more appropiate with a gear in transit light and a passage in the manual that "when the gear is up all lights assotiated with the gear should be OFF"? I mean if I was to fly 3 hours at night, I would prefer that there were no yellow lights in the cockpit (althouh it can be dimmed).

Can someone enlighten me? :)

[ 28 July 2001: Message edited by: cosmo kramer ]

[Kermit 180]

Gday Cosmo. I dont know the reason for the light, but I have a thought on the matter.

The light means the wheels are retracted and locked up; the doors are closed and the wheels are in their bays. This might prevent you from exceeding any landing gear limiting speeds and damaging either the gear or the undercarriage doors. A floating gear might cause such damage, so this light may be a way of confirming the undercarriage status.

Kermie ;)

[411A]

On turbo-twin Cessnas' (401, 402, 411, 421) with electro-mechanical landing gear, the amber "gear up" light indicates that ALL gear are fully retracted. If any one gear is not fully retracted, the light should not illuminate (gear properly rigged of course).

[Tinstaafl]

There are 3 possible conditions that the undercarriage can be in, that the pilot needs to know about.

1. Gear safely DOWN ie locked & in a useable condition / all doors where they should be etc

2. Gear safely UP ie correctly stowed & all doors where they should be, allowing flight at speeds outside the gear DOWN limits.

3. Gear not in the safe UP or safe DOWN condition.


Allowing for always having a green light to to indicate the most important condition ie DOWN, then the remaining 2 states can be indicated with just one more light.

The two options are:

1. Use a light on to indicate safely UP, off to indicate not safely UP

2. Use a light off to indicate safely up, on to indicate not safely UP.

Cessna have chosen option 1. Piper tends to choose option 2.

[cosmo kramer]

Thanks for the replies. I'm most used to Pipers and such.