...........I've known of at least 3 occasions where the nose gear pin was left in. How? Because the techie had his own pin, he was then distracted, and there were 3 nice shiny pins still in the flight deck. Horrible rainy night so I guess the crew walk round was swift.
Yeah, this is why I have never quite understood the point of checking if there are pins on the flight deck. The Engs or tug crew could have used other pins.
A better way to be certain is to actually look at the points on each gear where the pins/sleeves go and make sure
they are clear.
We did a gear-down ferry about 5 years ago in an A330 at FL250 and 250Kts. I put ear plugs in and my headset over them and turned the volume up. Worked OK, (although some folk were a bit concerned about us flying like that right over New York, post 9/11).