Whatever the circumstances and side issues, the report has offered up a new word - at least for me.
Quote:
"... they probably conducted the after-take-off checklist with a high degree of
automaticity,"
I must try and work that into a conversation - once I can manage to pronounce it correctly.
BTW The gliding world has many historical instances of undercarriage stuff-ups. It became an issue when a whole generation of pilots learnt to fly in gliders with a fixed undercarriage, but then in the 1970s when the higher performance fiberglass types arrived with a retractable wheel, the old way of doing things (or perhaps rather
not doing things) still remained deep in the subconscious. Forgetting to put the wheel down for landing became the new trap. Then there were those who were in the air for longer flights, but forgot to retract the wheel after launch, and then mechanically operated the lever during the in circuit pre-landing checks thus retracting the wheel and landing on the aircraft's nicely polished belly - usually only with mild abrasions to the aircraft, but always with acute embarrassment for the pilot. The standard penalty was to shout a complete round of drinks at the bar when ops concluded. Micro switches and warning buzzers were installed to warn the operator of serious oversight and potential embarrassment when the dive brakes were opened with the wheel still retracted, but the more ingenious types still found ways to ignore or overlook the warning (what the hell is that strange noise??). I was once showing a visiting government VIP around the field when one of our most experienced pilots performed this astonishing feat right there in front of us. Since I had been building up the qualities of the pilot - one of our best - and all the exciting features of the borrowed aircraft - new, shiny and expensive - to our visitor, I also shared in the acute embarrassment of the pilot as I did my best to explain this quite unusual variation from standard landing procedure to our visitor
.