The G-Up Club:  Cuts Across All Lines
(As reprinted from MOA's MOONEY PILOT Magazine)

When it comes to flying high performance retracts, stats show membership in the infamous Gear-up Club cuts across all lines of currency, age, retract experience and total flight time accumulated.  If anything the older we get, the more problems some of us have with short-term memory and handling stressful flight situations; not always by a long shot, but sometimes with some people. 

Frankly when examining the stats, we couldn’t see any correlation between any of these pilot stats and FAA/NTSB “runway slides” stats.  Some of the most experienced and highly trained pilots on earth have done it, as have newbie retract students on early flights out.  A few years ago an active duty NASA Astronaut forgot to lower the gear on a USAF jet he was using more or less for personal transportation back and forth from Texas to Florida.  With all the safeguards currently in place in military and transport category jets and thus given the fact it has become rare nowadays, both airline and military pilots occasionally have earned membership rights for The GU Club. 

Nearest we can tell, at any given time there are an average of between three and ten+ Mooneys in shops someplace across the country undergoing repairs stemming from these type of incident/accidents.  Several factory pilots themselves have joined The GUp Club, some have done it in front of a crowd-even at the factory!  It isn’t uncommon for several retract pilots arriving at a Kerrville fly-ins, EAA’s Oshkosh, and Sun ‘N Fun Airshow at Lakeland, Florida each year to join "The Club."  In fact, one Mooney CFI/demo pilot did it in front of my own eyes at a Mooney fly-in at the factory in Kerrville in front of hundreds of fellow Mooney pilots lining the runway watching no less!  

Let’s be clear about this, when you look at the FAA/NTSB accident stats on this subject, your total time “in make and model” makes little difference as does your ratings.  While there may be some benefit for having a CFII rating in that proper cockpit procedures may be more ingrained, for the most part just as many veteran retract pilots tend to forget their gear as newbies.  You can have loads of F-16 time to complement your Mooney M20 time and while checklist etiquette may be more ingrained with ex-military and airline types than some of us civilians, we can cite you USAF aces who are members of "the club" as are airline types.  One 8,000 hour tt ex P-51 ace with 800 hrs in Mooneys I flew with one time forgot the gear three times in a row on a familiar flight in a new (to him) M20E…Lucky he had a check pilot (me) on-board each time.  Yep before you ask, he went on to forget it when by himself just a few hours later on…

After examining the stats and talking with numerous Club members, it has become my opinion that you can go to as many safety seminars as you have time for, have the best check-list routine in the world but if the right/wrong set of circumstances happen and just the right/wrong time, given our less than perfect M20 cockpit warning systems, it could happen to you.  Maybe not today or tonight, but eight months from now perhaps when you are tired from a 4 hour flight at altitude and somebody cuts you out of the pattern and you go around, or traffic forces you to fly a 3 mile downwind/final or the tower asks you to do something unexpected and your routine is disrupted, or…  

One common thread is that many report something occurred that disrupted their normal cockpit routine and/or they didn't recognize what the (seldom heard) horn meant in time.  Typical cockpit disruptions can be an event as simple or as commonplace as having to do an extra long final or downwind leg and thus causing the use of more power than usual so as to “drag it in”.   Some report their GU Event happened after a long tiring flight AND/or when their routine was disrupted by something as simple as cockpit or radio chatter.  Others say they usually used the gear to help slow down and something happened which caused then not to need the gear’s extra drag, and the rest was history… 

Who knows what it will (or could be) for you when your time comes?  But one thing is clear, the circumstances can and occasionally do arise by which even the most careful, checklist engrained, "type specific" experienced retract pilot may succumb and thus join The Club.   So, in my opinion, we need all the help we can get and certainly more than just a stupid antiquated monotone horn we seldom hear and our brain has trouble recognizing (in time) soon enough to do any good....

Why Not A Factory Initiative?
It is my personal opinion the factory should look long and hard at offering “state of the art” specific audio warning technology on new production retract aircraft and perhaps offer a retrofit system (via retrofit Service Bulletin Kit) as well.  Yea, I know they have lots of other items on their plate right now, but this should be given a priority.  I predict it could lower insurance rates for all such models produced and make new Mooneys more attractive in the eyes of retract newbies.  After all, there are several existing PMA/STCd systems to choose from and installing one OEM shouldn’t be a major project.

This OEM system could issue specific audio warnings on critical systems such as low oil pressure, pending stall, low vacuum, and (especially) vocalize “check your gear” warnings.  This technology and hardware is available now relatively economically especially when compared to price of new or even any used M20.  My thoughts is that this OEM project alone would garner MAC loads of (free) highly effective press editorially, the cost of which if they had to pay for it, would probably be more than for the engineering costs of the project!  In short, aviation editors are always looking for something to write about and from where I sit, I bet most every GA safety pundit would praise them for being the industry leader in OEM GA safety…

The Current Mooney M20 Fleet
Back when most of our M20s were built, specific message audio warnings weren’t available and their psycho-reactionary benefits weren’t proven.  Even as few as 10-15 years ago, verbal audio alarms were still expensive and primarily only used by the military and airlines.  Few if none had been used in GA if for no other reason than tradition.  However all that has changed and nowadays several simple, economical, super reliable systems currently exist such as the P2 and Gear Alert systems which can be economically retrofitted into every older Mooney including manual gear versions.  I feel strongly about this and I personally think these systems are money well spent and all but a necessity for the fleet where most of us use ANR headsets.

Nowadays the psyho-reactionary merits of specific audio warning systems are well documented as they have proven to be extremely effective, and on top of that, they are readily available, easy to install, and cheap.  Little doubt exists as to their effectiveness relative to the current OEM Sonalert mono-tone horn which is typically heard so infrequently by most pilots that have to think about its meaning when heard.

Also, nearly to a man users or members of the "Have" sect of the GU Club report that the typical gear horn is hard to hear over some ANR headsets and during radio chatter.  Whereas it is hard to dismiss a specific message verbal warning, some pilots simply don't make the mental connection soon enough between the meaning of the horn and the consequences.  Numerous tower tapes exist with a retract pilot admonishing the tower’s request for him to check his gear with him saying something in reply on the order of, “Sorry, I can’t hear you over this darned horn,” seconds before he joined the "Have" Sect of The GU Club…

Coy Jacob, Senior Editor MOA

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