Pilot's tip of the week

When To Put The Landing Gear Down

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Subscriber question:

 "When should you put the gear down on a retractable gear airplane?" - Bob W.

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Bob:

Gear Down“I prefer and have always taught students to extend the landing gear before downwind entry. This slows the aircraft and allows trimming for the gear down condition, as well as allowing a slower speed for purposes of blending with other traffic. I say this assuming a VFR flight.

On an IFR flight, assuming an instrument approach is being performed, it is best to extend the gear at glideslope intercept for a precision approach or at the final approach fix on a non-precision approach. Doing so will help you set up a stabilized approach.”

(NEW) IFR Mastery scenario #188 “GPS Jamming Over Nebraska” is now available. One of the funny things a pilot learns over years of GPS use is that there’s more than one way to accomplish the same task. There are also ways to complete a flight if the GPS is completely out of the picture. But what if the GPS is partially inoperative? Is there a clever solution? Watch the Intro video.

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