And that was my point! complacency can bite anyone.

chevvron,

My boss was fairly new, however he had been at the unit longer than me and as a Sqn Ldr, time in post should be irrelevant. I know I did the right thing, it was his reaction that shocked me!

sitigeltfel

IIRC, when the pilot called "Greens" the runway controller would toggle his Tx switch on the tower intercom box a couple of times to let the local controller know it was verified. Is this still current practice?

You are quite correct as an Ex RWC we used to get one bip at 8 miles and one at 3 or 4 miles and we would reply with two bips to the Local Controller. Only remember two red flare waveoffs in my career........


Veeps

UUPIs
 

Yes, UUPIs (Ultrasonic Undercarriage Position Indicator) gave three beeps on the tower frequency when the pilot transmitted with U/C selected down, and was I believe the invention of Mr Jeff Jefferson, a civilian Electronics Engineer employed at RAF Linton-On-Ouse. As an additional safeguard and indication for the Caravan Controller, JPs had a small white light on the aircraft nose that flashed continously when the gear was down. The SOP at night for JP pilots was to ensure that the nose mounted landing light was OFF when on final(s), otherwise the U/C light could not be seen.

The RAAF Mirage IIIs in the Far East in the late 60s also had a tone-button linked to the gear position. "Finals 3 Greens" was followed by a "beep" on the frequency.

My caravan TORs were slightly different - we would acknowledge on the Hadley Box when the controller transmitted 'Radar traffic, 4 miles, to [option]' - it wasn't confirmation on seeing the gear.

It's also worth mentioning that comms were traditionally quite bad between the Caravan and Tower, as they were plugged in and out every day - GRSF spent a lot of time fixing a variety of gremlins. On one occasion a Tornado was the last recovery of the night to Bruggen and in misty weather he'd turned off the landing lights without saying so. After a couple of failed attempts to contact the tower via intercom, Hadley Box and phone, I opted to transmit 'check gear, check gear' on the selected frequency - which didn't get a response either. Result: I fired a red and the jet had to divert to the UK for the weekend due to being bingo fuel. The crew apparently phoned up from the UK to complain about the red, and how the aircraft's location now screwed up exercise blah blah blah, totally missing the point of how I could have saved their neck if they had no wheels, yet all they ever needed to do was mention 'no lights'. My fault though, of course...

Correct Ascot twas the good old Hadley box:ok:

But I do know him and have been his boss. I have PMd Air Police and am happy to say that he has edited the post.

Who needs runway caravans?
After all, many aircraft have gear warning horns......

YouTube - Whats that beeping sound?

:rolleyes:

Good video....It just goes to show doesn't it?

First time ...
 

That's the first time I've heard the proverbial "expensive grinding noise", despite many a year of aeroplane driving ...
B U T there's also the old adage: "There are just two kinds of pilot - those who've landed wheels up, and those who haven't yet".
:ouch: