Chinese built Nanchang CJ-6 Crash Landing [video]
 

Nanchang CJ-6A (C-FTQW) gear-up landing during the Western Warbirds Association (WWA) meeting at the Oliver Airport (CAU3) in BC Canada [September 07, 2013].

i know we look at a clip like that and think what an idiot but its so easy to do!
Lack of concentration a distraction?
I remember flying into an airfield between two hills in a seneca five I had another pilot with me and the weather was atrocious.
visibility awful, Low scud cloud.
On final a few hundred feet up i peered into the gloom for the runway which came in sight! Dropped the gear went for full flap.
we went into cloud, the runway vanished and I was IMC between two hills in a valley.
" No Good going around!" My pilot friend used to a multi crew operation raised the gear at the precise moment that we came out of the cloud with the runway 200 feet below in very poor viz.
I know descended peering to keep the runway in view. Something did not feel right and as I flared to land that feeling that something was not right grew stronger I peered down to see no Greens and it dawned on me the gear was up although I had put it down.
I went full power pulling the nose up in a go around barely feet off the runway expecting the props to hit anytime!
My multi crew pilot friend had in that instant raised the gear for me and forgot to mention it! I was so intent on looking for the runway I did not notice and we came inches from hitting the props so beware its easy to do


Pace

I disagree it is easy to land gear up. It is the most preventable accident there is.

My initial instruction on a retractable gear airplane was done by a crusty X RCAF QFI. He beat into me that on final when you go through 500 AGL or roll wings level on final you check "gear down". He made me verbalize it every time, something I still do (although now softly enough that nobody can hear me).

I religiously did that for over 20 years and saw the 3 green lights every time until one day a few years ago they were not there on short final. It was the classic case of multiple changes in the plan, cockpit distractions and time pressure broke my concentration and I forgot to lower the gear, but that ingrained habit saved me.

It can save you too if you are willing to exercise the personal discipline to make the gear check a habit and beat yourself up if you ever miss the call.

I read somewhere that nobody has ever landed a 747 gear-up. I find it very impressive that human beings can, under the right circumstances, be so reliable.

abgd,

That's true, but John Deakin (AVweb Pelican's Perch) very nearly did land a 747 gear up. You can read his story here:

Pelican's Perch #80: Gear-Up Landing In A 747? - AVweb Features Article

A USAF C-5 crew landed their steed gear up at Travis AFB about 30 years ago...

There was also an Air India at JFK. Noticed by the tower controller - they got the gear down just in time. The audio is somewhere on the web.

Hey Pace,

Your friend who was used to multi crew operations didn't do you any favours there did he? It's a fairly basic principle of multi crew operations that the non-flying pilot doesn't just do things on his own (unless the SOP says so) without waiting for an order from the flying pilot.

Big Pistons, agree that it's the most preventable accident there is but, at the same time its also one of the simplest accidents to get involved in. A very interesting paradox! If it were truly "the most preventable" then it wouldn't keep happening! The only way to make it "preventable" for individual pilots is strict cockpit discipline (as you were taught by your instructor) plus an acknowledgement that it can happen to any or us at any time.

Glad to see the crew apparently unhurt in this incident and I'm sure the aeroplane will be repaired and airborne again quickly (albeit expensively!!).

Happy landings (with three greens!)

3 Pont

Surely this was a deliberate wheels up landing given that he cuts the engine just before impact?
Good job!

Looks to me like the engine stops when the prop tips touch the runway!

This made me think about the guy that lost his son in the aopa vid posted on here before No Greater Burden - Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association

Interestingly at about the 15:00 point of the vid he says regardless of whether he's flyin retractable or fixed he always does a GUMPS check.

Same here. This was drilled into me by my instructor from the first lesson. I almost only fly RGs, but when flying fixed gear I still do it. In fact, probably saved me from a gear-up not long ago (the usual scenario: distractions, high workload, etc). Caught it during the GUMPS.

Yep, he always does his GUMPs check but still it didn't save him from having the accident. There were many many factors involved so this "most preventable" of accidents becomes, on detailed analysis, much more complex. Can happen even to the some careful pilots and to those who "always do GUMPS". The best defence is to acknowledge that it certainly can happen to you, even if you "always" do the checks!

He mentions "sterile cockpit" which is another important tool to reduce human factor error at critical phases of flight.

White line award
 

If you land wheel up on tarmac in a glass glider, you qualify for the white line award.

There are those who are going to do it some day, and those who have done it....training gliders are usually fixed wheel, so the question seldom arises in training.

I was lucky, it was on grass, so only qualified for the green belly award....the embarrassing thing is, it was in front of my next student, who was waiting with the two seater when I landed in my Pegasus single seat glider...and wondered why the ground was a bit closer than ususal....

Forever after that, I would put the wheel DOWN below 1,000' or UP when above 1,000'. This may look silly when you are groveling in a one-sided thermal low down, but as an aid to my aging memory, worked well enough.

Pretty sure he got the donk stopped before the blades struck .. I can't see any bent blade tips.

Nicely done ... reckon they could (almost) just weld the gear down and fly it again.

At last someone with the balls to say it!

I've always maintained that landing gear up is totally avoidable and then someone trots out the cliched aphorism that 'there are those that have and those that will', making anyone saying they won't ever land gear up look incredibly smug.

I have had it bashed into me (like someone else posting here) to check out loud at 500ft that the gear is down:

In my case 'red, blue, greens'.

It may raise eyebrows from pax (as does my out-loud mantra on final of "height's good, speed's good. runway's good"- bashed into me by my PPL instructor 20+ years ago) but it's worked so far.....

MM
Many years ago a friend of mine completed his first ever 300 km for his gold C, with the wheel down (Std Jantar). Unfortunately he raised it to land on the grass. :O

Next day I almost did the same thing, in the same aircraft, when returning from a long X-country flight, the noise decreased when I was extending the gear. Fortunately the reduction in noise alerted me in time so as to not make the same mistake.

I also think the props stop before touchdown. Sounds like the engine is stopped just prior to touchdown too. Also looks like only one blade touches the ground.

This would suggest that the gear wasn't forgotten.

This accident happened at an airport neat where I live. The word from folks who were there was the pilot admitted to forgetting the gear. I believe "airshow-ites" was involved as there was a warbird fly in occuring that day.

As for the "it could happen to anyone" camp I respectfully disagree. A commitment to the personal discipline that comes from doing a final gear down check on every single landing will prevent this kind of accident.

There is no gear warning horn in a Nanchang, in its original state. Three pins appear when the gear is down, one above the cowling & one on each wing above the gear, plus green light in the cockpit. I came very close to doing this one day, flaps down then realised about 500' agl something wasn't right about the pitch, & the power required. There but the grace of good fortune . . .

As for gear up being the most preventable accident? I'd say fuel starvation accidents are higher, mainly because it tends to cause more fatal accidents.