OC619, Oh that old adage!! Good one! I actually merge your first and last together:
- Those who will
- Those who have and will again
I fly a retractable regularly, so it definitely won't be putting me off! I appreciate the removal of unwanted drag, and the ability to bring that drag back if necessary!
Not sure how the C182's system works, but I assume that it is similar to the Arrow where if the power lever is below a certain level, and the gear isn't down, a horn sounds and the caution light flashes or if you select 2 stages of flaps the gear horn will sound and the caution light flashes. Which is a REALLY obvious reminder to put the gear down! Albeit I have definitely seen a couple of videos on YouTube where very experiences pilots / instructors hear the horn, see the flashing light, and yet continue the approach to land on the belly...
The closest I got to a wheels up landing was when I was on approach to Le Touquet, outside of tower operation hours (which in France you can do). And whilst on (very) long final, I don't see my three greens after selecting gear down, nor did I hear the gear mechanism do its magic. I do the first steps, Arrows have a "feature" whereby if you turn on the instrumentation lights on using the dimmer wheel, it will automatically dim the landing gear lights to the same level of intensity (which is not visible in daylight). Nope that's not it, so then I attempt to test the light bulbs (just in case all three blew at once due to a surge... highly unlikely but anyway...), I then check all the fuses, all looks good. By that time I needed to go around and held just north west of the runway over the sea. I attempt to recycle the gear, still nothing - and before using the emergency gear lever, I started checking fuel remaining in hours, checking distance able to cover safely, trying to figure out the best landing spot for a wheels up (or partially up / unreliably down) landing, then I get the emergency checklist out and go through the procedures. After turning off the master, and turning it back on, I attempt once again to lower the gear and I hear the sound of the wheels locking down - and the three greens come on! What a relief!! I then do a low pass as another aeroplane was waiting on frequency to see if they could provide any further assistance, and I decided that a visual inspection of the gear to look as though it was down and locked was a prudent move just in case (probably not going to give me any useful feedback, but made me confident that the gear was in fact down and that it didn't look cocked or anything obviously wrong).
One warning is that the CFI at Denham tends to the over thorough perhaps on checkout requirements, so budget for that.
Thanks GTE - I would rather someone be over-thorough and prevented an accident rather than under-thorough and let something waiting to happen, happen. But that you state I should "budget for that" makes me feel as though there is a story behind the scene. I would not expect to spend more than a couple of hours for the checkout and aeroplane system differences considering that I fly a "complex" aeroplane regularly, and also have quite a few hours in a C172. Are you suggesting more than 2 hours for checkout? This isn't a deal/no-deal situation - just something to bear in mind re:costs!