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Date: Sun, 05 Jul 2009 22:28:37 -0400
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From: "John Barrett" <2thman@cablespeed.com>
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Subject: RE: Gear Up
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Dan Ballin writes:
******
So I come back to does anyone have ideas on how to keep this from happening?
Does anyone have a better mousetrap.   Thoughts on how to set up gear
warning systems - both Chelton and MVP seem to do this well, how to never
forget to use the checklist even when distracted - this is a hard one for
me.
******

There is another system available that you may not have heard of.  I have it
in my not flying as of yet IVP. It is called VP-200, the VP standing for
Vertical Power; www.Verticalpower.com  Its computer  automatically and/or
manually cycles into different flight modes depending on pilot selection or
on conditions such as power settings to select a particular flight mode.
Landing mode provides warnings both visual and audio if the gear is not down
in this particular mode. 

Bottom line is that you have to know your system and keep your awareness up.
Cockpit resource management breakdown is probably the single most common
cause of this embarrassing snafu.  Attention gets distracted and the gear
position is forgotten.

Gear warning horns have been with us since I started flying in the 60's and
still one of the most common pilot error incidents during my time in the
Navy was gear up landings.  The problem has been with us since they invented
retractable gear and it probably will continue.  Is it a good idea to have a
Chelton AND a VP AND something else to remind us to put the stupid gear down
before reuniting with terra firma? I don't know.  I may disable the audio on
the VP or the Chelton if it ends up driving me crazy.  

Even with these reminders we will probably still see folks ignoring the
signals.  VTAIL JEFF reminded me about a year ago on this forum that simple
old fashioned checklists if used will keep you out of most trouble.  


Regards,
John Barrett
Leading Edge Composites
www.carbinge.com