Mon Jun 04, 2018 8:24 pm
Tue Jun 05, 2018 1:06 pm
Cvairwerks wrote:Piper did, but in such a poor way. I think it was the Arrow that auto gear extend...
During the year 1967, according to the NTSB accident records, there were 530 "gear up" accidents. Of these accidents, five aircraft were totally destroyed and substantial damage was sustained by 432 aircraft. The 1968 figures for gear up landing accidents is 279, making a two year total of 809 gear up accidents. Piper Aircraft has produced approximately 2030 PA-28R aircraft as of this date. To date, we know of only one incident in which a PA-28R aircraft was landed wheels up unintentionally. This was an exceptional incident in which the pilot was attempting to land his airplane at a field just prior to the passing of a large thunderstorm. By his own embarrassed admission, the pilot came in extremely fast and forgot the landing gear lever. I think that even a casual observer of the aircraft accident scene would have to admit that Piper Aircraft has made possible a large gain in an area of safety which had previously been unresponsive to all sorts of Schemes of lights, horns and warning devices. To eliminate the feature that makes this new level of safety possible with opinions based only on two incidents, neither of which form a rational basis for such a decision, would be unthinkable.