This New Zealand-based Navajo’s right main gear wouldn’t come down — even after repeated attempts — due to a flat strut and failure of the uplock to disengage. Despite landing on grass and doing a 180, the pilot walked away,

by Joseph E. (Jeb) Burnside

You’ve heard the old joke before: There are two kinds of pilots—those who have landed gear up and those who will. It’s based on the distinct possibility that you’ll forget to put down the landing gear at some point, perhaps because of a distraction, an emergency or plain, simple forgetfulness.

Trying to prevent a gear-up landing is why we have checklists, mnemonics (GUMP) and gear-warning horns, to name a few preventive measures. And no one’s immune—even crews flying large transports have come close to forgetting to put down the rollers. But what about when the landing gear won’t come down at all? Or, maybe one leg is…