Flight Crew Commercial; Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Multiengine
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 11; Flight Crew Total 520; Flight Crew Type 77
Human-Machine Interface; Training / Qualification
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Air Traffic Control Issued Advisory / Alert; Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Flight Crew Became Reoriented; Flight Crew Executed Go Around / Missed Approach
Human Factors
I was practicing touch-n-gos early afternoon; flying solo. After a handful of power-off 180 accuracy landings; the tower requested that I extend my down wind for landing traffic on [an intersecting runway]. At this point; I decided I should setup to practice a short field landing (since I was not authorized for a short approach). For some reason; and I don't have an exact reason; I did not ever put the gear down. The tower had to tell me to go around. I don't recall exactly how close it was. It was close enough to provoke a fair amount of anxiety and embarrassment. The descent was arrested before I descended below 50 feet. I may have been thinking that I did not want to drag the gear around for an extended downwind. That's really just a guess. One cause of the problem was certainly poor and inadequate instruction. We know we should have a consistent procedure in place that is simple and yet rigorous to account for distracted moments and outright errors. Lip service is paid to this all too often; though. Nobody seems to know how ensure that checks for the flags; engine; and gear are efficiently worked into the approach at all the points they are needed. So; apart from being forgetful; it really is an instruction issue in this case. My new procedure will be to check these things at every leg in the pattern. Possibly also; always check airspeed and consider gear position before adjusting flaps.
PA-28 commercial rated pilot reported forgetting to extend the landing gear during approach after being asked by the Tower to extend the downwind for traffic on an intersecting runway. The Tower Controller detected that the gear is up at a low altitude and issued a go around. Poor and inadequate instruction was cited as a factor in the incident.