Yeah alright alright, point taken. Didnt explain myself very well, and I do have a tendancy to be somewhat harsh towards stupidity.
Obviously in an emergency landing it can quite often be advantageous to leave the wheels up, partiucularly in short spaces or on water and in cases such as these I apologise to anyone I may have offended by my previous remarks.
What I was getting at was the fact that 'forgetting' to put the wheels down, for whatever reason, is a pretty pathetic excuse.
Unhinged, you are right, I am in no way infallible and am not trying to say in any way that I am. However I do have several thousand hours on retractable light aircraft myself and I can honestly say I have never forgotten the wheels, or even come close to short finals and remembered at the last minute. Of all the things to remember when landing, Ive always had it drummed into me, wheels, wheels wheels. If you check nothing else in the circuit, at least remember the wheels.
I dunno, I guess I just like to be hard on myself and expct things done right. I know a few people who have left the wheels up, and yes, almost all of them learned a valuable lesson and they ended up better for it, but by god was it one expensive lesson!!
I do know one person that has done it 3 times in 4 years, not once through mechanical problems, I think in that case i would be inclined to weld the gear down or go home.
I think Haughtney1 makes a good comment, a plane that needs the wheels down to slow down does make life easier!!