Aircraft Systems and Flight

 

    As an aircraft goes through the stages of taxi, takeoff, in-flight, and landing the systems within are working together to allow proper operation of the aircraft. The landing gear allows the plane to move around while on the ground. That is including the takeoff and landing portions of it being on the ground. Without landing gear aircraft would never land, they would just crash.

 

    As a pilot takes off and retracts their landing gear for the duration of the flight everything is going smooth, all systems including the pilot’s inputs are working in unison. The time comes for the pilot to enter the landing patter at their airport, but they forget to lower the landing gear. They make their final approach and still no landing gear has been lowered to absorb the shock of landing and allow a roll once on the ground. The aircraft slams into the runway and the airplane crashes. Forgetting to lower the landing gear has caused the plane to crash and potentially injure or kill the passengers. A simple human error of forgetting to lower the landing gear caused a catastrophic incident.



    Some ways to mitigate and reduce the chance of this happening are to install a landing gear sensor in the plane. The sensor will alert the pilot of their landing gears orientation, up or down. Once the aircraft slows down to the preset airspeed threshold, the system will alert the pilot with an audio queue, “Gear Is Down For Landing” (in a male voice) or “Check Gear, Check Gear” (in a female voice) if it’s not down (Lightstone, 2020). This would be a great digital assistant to have with you while flying just incase you happen to forget to lower your landing gear. Another way to mitigate this happening is to train in different situations with an instructor. Insist on verification. Drill your student not only to lower the landing gear, but also to confirm that the gear goes down and locks (Turner, 2016). The instructor can saturate you with tasks or provide increased stress in critical moments of the landing process, this would allow you to practice your mental checklist and help you to remain calm and remember the things that need to be done for a safe landing to occur.

 

 

References:

Dunlevie, J., & Byrne, C. (2015, April 22). Top end pilot distracted by coughing passenger, forgot to Lower Landing Gear: Report. ABC News. Retrieved November 29, 2021, from https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-04-22/nt-pilot-forgot-to-put-landing-gear-down-atsb-report-finds/6412690.

Lightstone, P. (2020, August 24). Landing Gear alerters: Few standalone choices. Aviation Consumer. Retrieved November 29, 2021, from https://www.aviationconsumer.com/accessories/landing-gear-alerters-few-standalone-choices/

Turner, T. P. (2016, April 2). Avoiding gear-up mishaps. AOPA. Retrieved November 29, 2021, from https://www.aopa.org/training-and-safety/students/flighttestprep/skills/avoiding-gear-up-mishaps.

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