by Jon Doolittle
Its a groaner weve all heard: There are those who have and those who will land with the gear in the wells. The notion is absurd, of course. All of us know plenty of pilots whove retired from flying having never scratched an airplane, let alone scrubbing the antennas off with the million-dollar runway slide.
Gear-up landings happen to pilots of all experience levels, but there’s good evidence that it tends to be a high-timer type of mishap for reasons we don’t fully understand. Landing gear accidents are more of an embarrassment than a serious safety problem because people rarely get hurt and the airplane is (usually) repairable. But gear-up landings represent a substantial percentage of the cost of flying, not only to insurers, but to owners and pilots. We cant tell you exactly how much it will cost if you land with the wheels up, but we know from unfortunate history what will need to be replaced. As shown in the charts on page 21, the financial carnage is staggering and as an owner, you’ll pay for some of it. In gathering numbers for this article, we spoke with shops around the country and looked at a range of light general aviation airplanes using actual repair invoice totals. Gear-ups are more expensive than ever.
Bent MetalGear-up landings begin with the violent meeting of propeller and pavement, which requires the removal of the prop and the engine, referred to as R&R (removal and reinstallation). Most shops that do a lot of this work have either a flat rate, depending upon the engine type, or else a good idea of how much time each R&R will require.
Propellers involved in these accidents can rarely be repaired, so there are three possibilities: If one is available, you may opt to replace it with a used overhauled prop. But since shops are often required to scrap the hub as we’ll as the blades, the supply of used propellers is dwindling.
Option two is to replace the propeller with a new one of the same type from the original equipment manufacturer. These are generally available but can be expensive. Choice three is a new STCd propeller, which are available for most airplanes and are priced between new OEM replacements and used overhauled props.
Because most variable pitch props are made by either Hartzell or McCauley, one is usually the OEM and the other competing with a lower cost STCd challenger. We think the STC props are a good value, but we would urge owners considering one to ask around among other pilots with similar airplanes who have made the change to see what they think. Unlike propellers, engines can usually be saved after a gear-up landing, but require a teardown inspection, including examination or replacement of a number of engine-driven accessories, including vacuum pumps and magnetos. Some shops quote with these items included and some don’t. Always ask.
The teardown inspection focuses on the bottom end of the engine and the cost varies with type and size of engine, with the number of cylinders the chief variable in teardown price. A typical teardown quote includes a flat labor charge as we’ll as a list of parts that must be replaced in order to legally assemble the engine.
The final invoice will include parts and labor associated with any other damage found during the inspection which is not related to the gear-up landing, but which must be addressed before assembling the engine, such as corrosion, a distressingly common finding typically not paid for by insurers. (More on this later.)
In addition to the teardown cost, you’ll have damage to other parts of the airplane, mostly those components that took over for the tires. This varies with the type of airplane and how we’ll the pilot finessed the landing. When airplanes skid off the runway and encounter signs, lights or trees, the ante goes up. Pilots who flip the gear switch down midway through the event find that the gear motor wont pick the airplane up, but will be strong enough to do a great deal of damage to the retraction system.
The big damage cost variable is type of airplane. Some types have most of the damage confined to a few easily replaced components. Several shops that we talked to told us that Bonanzas often ride down the runway on the nosebowl and the step, grinding away the inboard corner of the flaps, nosebowl and the bottom of the step, doing little other damage.
Another shop said that Cessna 210s tended to cost more to repair since they slide along on the belly, requiring a great deal more sheet metal work, new antennas, gear doors and the like. Twins will obviously cost more to fix because there are two props and two engines.Amphibians are the other side of the landing-gear accident coin. Forgetting the gear in an amphibian when landing on land usually leads to a very short landing roll, some scraped paint and not much else. Often, the keel strips don’t even need to be replaced. The big no-no in amphibians is extending the gear before a water landing, the dreaded “gear-down” landing. This ends with the airplane pitching forward and capsizing. In salt water, this usually leads to a total loss. And its one type of landing-gear accident where people can and often do get hurt.
Who Pays?While insurers bear most of the immediate burden for these accidents-and its a big number-they know about how often its going to happen and how much it will cost. They have collected their money in advance, have it set aside earning interest and are just waiting for the phone to ring. This isn’t the case for owners.
The first cost that an owner bears is his in-motion deductible. These typically range from $0 to $2500 for landplanes and are substantially more for amphibians, frequently as much as 10 percent of the airplanes value.
Another expense some owners have to pick up is the cost of “betterment.” Insurance contracts are meant to restore the airplane to the same state it was in before the accident. If repairs result in increasing the value of the airplane, insurers may ask the owner contribute to the extent that the airplane has received betterment.