Simples..on a retractable gear aircraft no need for mechanical interlock gizmos, existing gear electrical configuration warning could fail???don’t rely on it!
Check list.
Memory items last thing on final
Call ….Red, Blue & Greens, without fail every time!
Red mixture full rich, Blue prop full fine, Three Greens = gear down & locked
SmartASS? It is a talking ASI that helps to maintain a selected speed, and also can provide the gear up alert through a nice lady’s voice.Quote
Unfortunately, I’m a cynic. I am a true believer in the primacy of “Aviate, navigate, communicate”. That means that I will forgo communications for concentrating on flying. Happily, 99% of the time, I can easily manage all three at once. But, when the going gets tough, I will ignore “communicate”, and then ignore “navigate” as necessary to aviate safely. If I have allowed a system to morph an aiviate task (methodically assuring the correct configuration of the aircraft, in isolation from any outside influence) to a communication task (me thinking about what “someone” is saying to me), I have shifted the importance of aviating to the much lower level of communication. I have flown so many planes which were “telling me” things down final, I just began to ignore all of them – information overload, distracting me from flying. A techie sitting at a desk is designing things into a plane, each with it’s own “important” thing I should know. They superimpose to create distarction, which I end up ignoring on the whole. This is the technology age, where each bright idea is trying to clamber over the other, sometimes to fulfill a role, which should just be basic.
When you fly amphibians, you learn that the only possible landing gear warning system tells you where the gear is every time – ‘cause the plane has no idea othe intended landing surface. So it’s not really a warning system at all, it’s background chatter, which I end up ignoring.
So when people discuss with me warning gadgets, I try to turn the discussion back to basics. Are you flying the plane? If you are doing a good job, and your situational awareness is as it should be, what do you need to be warned about? You should know configuration, speed, AGL, and be aware of terrain. Honestly, the only thing which could creep up and surprise me would be traffic, so a warning about that could be useful in a busy environment. As for the plane, I’ll devote myself to assure its correct configuration, if it not beep and talk distractingly to me! But, that’s just me, whatever works for each person – just don’t gadget excuse yourself out of taking responsibility for assuring configuration!
Pilot DAR,
fully agreed. What you do – flying the plane, in the sense as you wrote – is what I do my best to learn.
At the same time, you wrote “If you are doing a good job…”. I am focusing on doing a good job. But the “If” is there and time to time we read about people who just did not do a good job at that critical moment.
This is why I want such a tool in the plane. I do not want to hear it’s warnings. Never.
But, I want to have an extra layer of safety to wake me up when I screw up.
I tend to agree with the idea that a gadget to protect against every possible mistake isn’t the best approach, but would mention that in intensive care, there has been a lot of work into making the cacophony of beeps distinguishable. They represent little tunes to mimic the prosody of language, and after a while you can pick up what’s happening fairly well. They’re surprisingly intuitive.
I like the configuration assurance concept. It is similar to how automated systems work. Set the configuration – is all parameters set and within bounds? – configuration set and OK. Should be automated. I wonder, didn’t the FW 190 have such a system? With the flip of a switch it was in “landing mode”.
This Megeve video has just hit the UK social media, all over again, and they thought it was brand new 
Anyone installed the Voice Alert System 2040-1-2 or 2040-1-2P from this supplier ?
It has FAA STC and my Commander 114B is on the AML, but no EASA Approval.
I can see reference to previous posts on this thread mentioning this product but no reports of installation. Any reports of installation, issues, and gaining approval for EASA aircraft will be helpful.
I promised to myself that I’d never ever touch down my plane if I didn’t have made the GUMPS call out (and physically checked the configuration by hand) on short final.
I think of it as the right way of action. In fact I do GUMPS twice, but in any approach in the seconds prior to touch down. My Comanche takes about two seconds for gear operation, so it’s never too late. But anyway, it’s a “no gear-up” plane and I’ll keep it that way.
The problem is the only way you’ll find out that ONE time you didn’t do your check is when you touch down
with gear up.
Snoopy wrote:
The problem is the only way you’ll find out that ONE time you didn’t do your check is when you touch down
with gear up.
Come on there ARE pilots that have never done a gear-up landing.
By the way, I nearly landed gear up once aged 16 in a glider. Heard them shouting, dropped the wheel and all went well. So – maybe I’m already done with that sort of things…
