ZK-TAH wheels up NZOM?

[Got the horn]

What happened to the Cutlass ZK-TAH at Omaka yesterday? Landed wheels up I hear.

[snakeslugger]

:eek:Oh hell, that used to be a very tidy machine and served me well in the many hours I have done in it. Was it still operated by Nelson Aviation College?

[aileron_69]

Haha that must have been awhile ago it was tidy, was a piece of junk last time I saw it 3 or so years ago.

Other than mechanical failure, how on earth can anyone wheels up a plane?? No offence but landing with the wheels up is like trying to take a leak before taking your old fella out of your pants, the only excuse is being either drunk or retarded!!:E

[bentleg]

how on earth can anyone wheels up a plane??


Easy. Forget you are flying a retractable, forget to put the wheels down, and no PUF check on final. (Why do I get those beeps in the headset on final?)

[Unhinged]

Other than mechanical failure ... either drunk or retarded

Well, given the number of pilots who have landed wheels up without any of those reasons, there must be a few other options. Lemme see ... an emergency which was taking up all the pilot's brain space at the time, a non-pilot passenger unexpectedly flying a bugsmasher because the pilot had passed out/was no longer with us, efato where the pilot considered that wheels up was a better option than wheels down, electrical failure, ...

The next one may be yours. Call back sometime when you have enough experience to realise that you aren't infallible

[tail wheel]

aileron.

There are those that have - and those but for the grace of God, haven't.

Yet! :E

Your post does not reflect well on the many pilots who, through a minor distraction, lapse of memory or an emergency, have landed a couple of feet lower than intended, learned the lesson and went on to excel in their aviation careers.

Learn not to be so critical! It may even happen to you one day.

[haughtney1]

All the more reason to fly an aeroplane that NEEDS to have the gear down so it will slow down on approach :E

[aileron_69]

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!!

[codenamejames]

so it looks similar to this:

http://www.nelson-aviation.co.nz/~images/content/172_cutlass.jpg

but different....

[hard_yakka]

I reckon it would be pretty easy to do if you spent most of your time flying a fixed gear C172 and then converted to the Cutlass. Everything would be similar enough that if you got a bit behind the airplane, the fact that your normal fixed-gear pre-landing checks worked the same way could lull you into forgetting the differences and not putting the gear down.

I find that flying the Yak 52 is so different in cockpit layout and procedures to the other planes I fly (C172 etc.), that the danger of inadvertently "using the other plane's mental checklist" is considerably reduced.

[Ovation]

aileron_69 said:

Other than mechanical failure, how on earth can anyone wheels up a plane?? No offence but landing with the wheels up is like trying to take a leak before taking your old fella out of your pants, the only excuse is being either drunk or retarded!

Old saying about wheels up: "There are those that already have, and there are those that are going to"

I know the director of a well known aviation insurer (now absorbed into a bigger one) who did a wheels up in his aircraft. He forgot to lower the gear because he was distracted by the noise of the alarm (GEAR UNSAFE).

Seriously hard to stuff up in a Cessna I would have thought - you can eyeball the u/c, whereas in a low wing most times you rely on 3 light globes.

[timetime]

Thats a nice aircraft I have done lots of flying in it.Its usually used for IFR training so would be dual?.It may of had a leg collapse?They don't like to be landed hard as can bend a leg as has happened before.It has the standard alarms activated by low map or flap 20 with gear up.So hurt pride but no body hurt.:D