Provide an option for Gear Warning

Hook

Well-known member
Official iFly Beta User
Joined
Apr 13, 2023
Messages
160
Reaction score
51
Location
Everett, WA
If the user selects the option to get Gear Warning (general options or in the aircraft profile), then when the aircraft goes below X feet AGL and has slowed below Y speed (mph, kts, or kph) then pop up a window to check that landing gear is down. "X" and "Y" are user-settable parameters. When I say below the AGL and below the speed limit, I mean that what the aircraft had to be doing prior to that was be higher and faster, and it's now sinking and going slower. This prevents giving the warning during a takeoff when you would be below the AGL limit, and might be going slow.

All you guys with retractable or re-positionable gear vote on this by clicking on the up or down arrows to the right.

If you have tweaks to my idea (I'm sure there are some), chime in here.
 
All for this. I think the warning should probably be "Check Gear" or "Confirm Gear Position" or something like that as I want wheels up for landing on water and down for land. I think you've got it correct that the warning becomes "armed" once you pass x height and y speed. Be nice to have it be an audible warning as well as pop something up on the screen (near top rather than bottom). Might have to add something in the aircraft profile for retractable/repositionable gear in order to turn on the warning option. Or maybe make it an instrument to place on the screen.

Thinking through some conditions in my Searey:
  • 300' AGL, 85 mph: no warning
    • slow to 70: "Check Gear"
  • 500' AGL, 70 mph: no warning
    • descend to 400': "Check Gear"
  • 1,500' AGL, practicing slow flight, stalls, etc...,70 mph or less: no warning
@Don Maxwell: How does the gear warning alarm/selector work in your Searey? Would it be useful to have this as a backup or alternate method if we don't have that system on our planes?

Tony
 
Yes, thank you, I could've put it more succinctly, as you did: that once you hit a certain speed and height then the system becomes "armed" (looking for a descent below X AGL and speed below Y).

Making it an instrument might be the way to go.
 
Tony, My SeaRey has the ACI 2070B SeaRey Gear Alert--I think that's the formal name. It was developed by the Ontario SeaRey dealer, John Dunlop (ex-RCAF fighter pilot and Air Canada captain, ret, and builder of two SeaReys). I was a beta-tester--but that doesn't exactly indicate bias, because I had already flight-tested three other landing gear alerts, all for seaplanes, and rejected them. This baby is the best, probably on the planet.

It monitors landing gear position, flap position, and airspeed--as you'd expect. When it detects landing-position flaps and/or (used-set) approach-airspeed, it flashes two lights alternately and a strident woman's voice says in the intercom, "Select landing." That is, it interrogates you, the pilot, about your intention. You then have to press the flashing light corresponding to "RUNWAY" or "WATER." If you press the correct one for the current landing gear position (up or down), the woman's voice says, "Water landing--okay" OR a man's voice says, "Runway landing--okay.

If you press the wrong light for the gear position OR if there's a landing gear asymmetry (one up, one down) or not completely locked, the strident woman says, "CHECK LANDING GEAR, CHECK LANDING GEAR..." over and over until you either press the correct flashing light or relocate the gear. It's very alarming when that happens, and I've never heard of anyone going past that point without recognizing that there's a landing gear problem. (You CAN ignore it, but not by accident!)

But the best feature of the ACI 2070B SeaRey Gear Alert is that after every takeoff it waits for about 50 seconds and then checks the gear position. If you've left the wheels down, is says, "RAISE GEAR. RAISE GEAR" to remind you that in an amphibian the wheels must always be up EXCEPT for a land runway landing. That's the best feature of all. (Especially in a SeaRey, which, being a high-wing pusher, can land gear-up on any surface and still fly away. (It might not float if the surface is coarse concrete, but it will fly.) I wouldn't buy the Alert until they added that feature. Recent versions repeat the warning later if you still haven't raised the gear.

All of those alert conditions can be disarmed temporarily--during stall practice, for example, or slow flight.

It's sold by ACI (Aircraft Components Inc, which also makes a somewhat less talented version for certified airplanes) and others, but here's the developer's ad for it, with probably the best price anywhere: http://www.seareycanada.com/Specials.htm
 
Back
Top