Airliner flight with gear down

J

J777Fly

Well-Known Member
If you needed to fly a short hop, of lets say 50 nm, below 10,000 FT, could you fly an airliner with its gears down to go easy on the cycles? (airbus, boeing, bombardier, embraer...doesn't matter)
 
You can fly it 1000 miles if you keep it under Vle.
Altitude doesn't matter as gear is outside the pressure vessel. Aside from obvious problems with drag and going too slow(IAS) for an altitude.
 
J777Fly said:
If you needed to fly a short hop, of lets say 50 nm, below 10,000 FT, could you fly an airliner with its gears down to go easy on the cycles? (airbus, boeing, bombardier, embraer...doesn't matter)
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Raising and lowering the gear isn't what really counts as a cycle on the airplane, rather pressurizing and depressurizing the fuselage.
 
As a 121 pilot I twice had the gear have some sort of issue requiring maintenance that led to the gear being pinned down and the airplane ferried home.

Both times I was at the absolute furthest airport from our maintenance base. Long trip across the northeast at 155 IAS (IIRC).
 
USMCmech said:
Raising and lowering the gear isn't what really counts as a cycle on the airplane, rather pressurizing and depressurizing the fuselage.
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Or if you want to be correct, it's every landing, pressurized or not, gear down (hopefully) or not, engines running (hopefully) or not, that is what needs to be logged.
 
The CRJ has a MLG Fire loop, and if you get a (false) indication, the QRH procedure is to lower the gear, and if you have sufficient fuel, complete the flight with the gear down.
 
jwp_145 said:
The CRJ has a MLG Fire loop, and if you get a (false) indication, the QRH procedure is to lower the gear, and if you have sufficient fuel, complete the flight with the gear down.
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Your company also does revenue flights with the gear pinned for other reasons than fire loops issues.
 
SpiceWeasel said:
Your company also does revenue flights with the gear pinned for other reasons than fire loops issues.
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I've done a few on the RJ and one on the 717. It's loud. It's slow. It burns a ton of gas. But there's no prohibition against it (as long as it's been properly documented and you have the correct cruise/fuel burn data).
 
BobDDuck said:
I've done a few on the RJ and one on the 717. It's loud. It's slow. It burns a ton of gas. But there's no prohibition against it (as long as it's been properly documented and you have the correct cruise/fuel burn data).
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There is a prohibition in our manual.
 
jwp_145 said:
The CRJ has a MLG Fire loop, and if you get a (false) indication, the QRH procedure is to lower the gear, and if you have sufficient fuel, complete the flight with the gear down.
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That's one way to scare the crap out of the passengers, drop the landing gear in a CRJ halfway through the flight.
 
You actually might find that you wind up flying with the gear down unexpectedly. Maybe, oh let's say, you fly with a captain that insists he completed the preflight, however happens to miss the nose wheel gear pin, thus leading to a "Gear Disagree" warning after retraction. You might decide to continue on to your destination with the gear down, rather then returning to land and facing the carpet dance!!

Then again, nah.............something like that would never happen. :rolleyes:
 
X-Forces said:
You actually might find that you wind up flying with the gear down unexpectedly. Maybe, oh let's say, you fly with a captain that insists he completed the preflight, however happens to miss the nose wheel gear pin, thus leading to a "Gear Disagree" warning after retraction. You might decide to continue on to your destination with the gear down, rather then returning to land and facing the carpet dance!!

Then again, nah.............something like that would never happen. :rolleyes:
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Story time, next time you're home!
 
I'll suck up the gear and drop it at the appropriate time, if its under 50nm I'd just depart VFR and pick up IFR clearance in the air and immediately after the readback, cancel because destination is in sight. I wouldn't leave the gear down the whole flight, because it just makes the 20 min flight 5-6 mins longer.

Did this all the time flying 121 pax.
 
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