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QANTAS pilots forget to lower landing gear...

Because the designers figure 700 ft is a useful altitude. It's roughly one minute to touchdown at an average glideslope rate of descent. Research

Well it obviously wasn't that useful if they had to go-around to have time to lower the gear. ;) Of course, a simple thing like "landing gear" strikes me as something a pilot shouldn't forget. ;)
 
Because the designers figure 700 ft is a useful altitude. It's roughly one minute to touchdown at an average glideslope rate of descent. Research

Well it obviously wasn't that useful if they had to go-around to have time to lower the gear. ;) Of course, a simple thing like "landing gear" strikes me as something a pilot shouldn't forget. ;)

think about it for a second.

700f up, 1minute from touch down it's a pretty good time to let the pilots know they fiucked up big time before they kill everyone on board - they can abort the approach.

They would have time to lower the gear but by the time the gear is down, there would be no time to take corrective action (such as a go-around) if the gear doesn't deploy or they realise they've done something else wrong (such as wrong angle for the flaps).
 
Well it obviously wasn't that useful if they had to go-around to have time to lower the gear. ;)

The first rule of flight is that you go around at the first sign something about the landing doesn't look right. Frankly I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often; goes to show how well-trained an Airline Transport Pilot needs to be.

Of course, a simple thing like "landing gear" strikes me as something a pilot shouldn't forget. ;)
You'd be surprised. A lot of NTSB reports boil down to "gear-up landing." And usually the pilot walks away fine, but it's still a problem.

The Piper Arrow's POH describes a system whereby the gear automatically extends when flying at low airspeed. However, this has been disabled in pretty much every Piper Arrow in existence, because people kept using the override to prevent it and then forgetting they had the override on, etc....so now it's all manual because that's just plain safer.
 
They almost made a Qantas leap....

Ziggy says there's a 10% chance anybody will get that, and a 5% chance it was funny. :p
That's better than I expected....

And i not only got it but was mildly amused ...

yeah it gave me a giggle too.
Thanks, guys. I live to mildly amuse. :D

But you realise of course that eventually you're going to hell for these jokes right? :)

Bruin and leap indeed<shakes head>
 
While at Travis AFB (1981), I watched a C-141B land without it's gear lowered..
Co-pilot simply forgot that part of the checklist, yet he still announced "Down and Locked" to the Aircraft Commander ..the aircraft was scraped up on the belly but was returned to flight about a month afterwards..
the Copilot never returned to flight..and audible warning systems were made part of the next upgrade package in the Starlifter aka the C-141C
 
While at Travis AFB (1981), I watched a C-141B land without it's gear lowered..
Co-pilot simply forgot that part of the checklist, yet he still announced "Down and Locked" to the Aircraft Commander ..the aircraft was scraped up on the belly but was returned to flight about a month afterwards..
the Copilot never returned to flight..and audible warning systems were made part of the next upgrade package in the Starlifter aka the C-141C

How the hell do you manage call down and locked when it's not - you'd have to of not even checked the indicator lights!!

Hopefully the co-pilot never returned the airforce either.
 
At least these guys didn't miss the airport by 150 miles because they were trying to figure out how to maximize their schedule.

Oh come on, they were getting it on. Everybody knows it. Crew can't get into the cockpit now cos it's locked.

*bow chicka bow bow*

Seriously, that was the first thing I thought of when I heard about THAT incident. And I'm STILL convinced someone should get some luminol into that cockpit...

(The joke I REALLY wanted to make might have been too crude for the board, unfortunately! It was damn funny, though...)
 
How the hell do you manage call down and locked when it's not - you'd have to of not even checked the indicator lights!!

Hopefully the co-pilot never returned the airforce either.

It's not the first time I've heard such a story. It's surprisingly easy to see what you expect to see, even when following a checklist.
 
How the hell do you manage call down and locked when it's not - you'd have to of not even checked the indicator lights!!

Hopefully the co-pilot never returned the airforce either.

It's not the first time I've heard such a story. It's surprisingly easy to see what you expect to see, even when following a checklist.

Missing the step I can sort of understand (was the case with the QANTAS pilots) but going through the checklist with both a physical action (throw the lever to lower the gear) and a visual (do you have greens indicating the gear is down and locked).
 
Well it obviously wasn't that useful if they had to go-around to have time to lower the gear. ;) Of course, a simple thing like "landing gear" strikes me as something a pilot shouldn't forget. ;)

*wink* *wink* *wink* professor Trekker! Get out of your glass bubble. You talk as if no one should be making mistakes. Well, they shouldn't, but they do. This is why we make things the way we do. We conquer the world with our technology and it will always be a unending battle as we strive to get it right.

In your car, for every little blinking light on the dash, for every printed warning and notice, there's a history of someone fucking up and forgetting.
 
The system obviously works since nobody was in danger. The pilots falling asleep and missing their airport a few weeks ago was the same thing: if there's nothing wrong with the aircraft then it will keep everyone alive when the pilots have brain fade.
 
Well, in that case there was the possibility of fuel exhaustion, but yes, normally the autopilot is pretty good at maintaining straight-and-level.
 
How the hell do you manage call down and locked when it's not - you'd have to of not even checked the indicator lights!!

Hopefully the co-pilot never returned the airforce either.

It's not the first time I've heard such a story. It's surprisingly easy to see what you expect to see, even when following a checklist.

Missing the step I can sort of understand (was the case with the QANTAS pilots) but going through the checklist with both a physical action (throw the lever to lower the gear) and a visual (do you have greens indicating the gear is down and locked).

When they've done it a million times before with no problems, people go through checklists on autopilot (pun not intended for once, promise!), so it's not surprising. They just mentally assume it's done because it usually is and respond automatically to the relevant prompt. Human beings are habit forming by nature and see what they expect to see and say what they're used to saying. This is one area computers/technology is much better than humans and the more that can be automated and taken out of the human arena the better. Either that or really FORCE the human to take action with some kind of active visual or audible prompt that is constantly flashing/beeping and only turns off when the correct human action is taken.
 
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