Small Aircraft; Low Wing; 1 Eng; Retractable Gear
Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Commercial; Flight Crew Instrument
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 12; Flight Crew Total 2900; Flight Crew Type 1250
Distraction; Situational Awareness
Ground Event / Encounter Gear Up Landing
Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Aircraft Aircraft Damaged; General Evacuated
Human Factors
Enroute at pattern altitude I entered a long left downwind (pursuant to Tower instructions) during a busy Sunday afternoon when there were many aircraft landings. As I proceeded on left downwind; I was flying toward the approach end of the Runway when the tower asked if I could accept a landing and hold short of the cross Runway which was the active Runway. I apprised Tower that I could accommodate that request and began a descent to a short left base to the Runway. I then made the base to final turn and continued my descent without using the check list; focusing on touching down close to the numbers; and landing short to assure that I could stop before crossing the other runway. As I began my flare; all seem to be going well until the prop struck the Runway and the aircraft settled onto the fuselage and came to an abrupt stop. During the earlier phase of this flight; I landed for lunch and made a second landing for fuel. After refueling I departed for the very short low level flight into the busy Sunday afternoon airspace. I was describing to my inexperienced passenger the arrival/landing sequence into a Towered airport; the ATIS requirements; the five mile Class D reporting requirements and cautioned him to watch for other traffic in the pattern which we could hear being vectored by the Tower. That conversation; together with the last minute Runway change; was my concern about landing short and my explanations to my new-to-flying passenger. This likely disturbed my concentration and disrupted my normal landing procedure including my failure to use the pre-landing check list resulting in the gear up landing. Most of the time I use a check list; as on the two previous legs/landing in this flight; where I had my passenger-friend; read me the check lists. However; on this short leg; after start up and climb out; and the unexpected Runway change; I did not consult the check list on descent to landing. One non-pilot recommendation that I believe would help reduce gear-up landings at Towered airports would be to employ the Military and [Foreign] Tower procedure; of having the Tower controller request 'Confirm Gear Down and Locked'. Retractable pilots typically check their gear and reply 'Gear Down and Locked'; while fixed gear pilots typically report 'Gear Down and Welded'. I frequently fly into [Foreign Airports] and have found this to be a helpful reminder!
[Report narrative contained no additional information.]
Small aircraft pilot became distracted and landed gear up.