What happened
The aircraft was engaged in a series of touch-and-go landing exercises. During one specific maneuver, the pilot initiated the takeoff roll and rotated for liftoff. Immediately following rotation, the pilot retracted the landing gear instead of leaving it extended as per standard procedure for this phase of flight. After becoming airborne, the pilot noticed that the aircraft was not climbing at the expected rate. Suspecting a performance issue or potential mechanical failure, the pilot reduced engine power to abort the takeoff and return to the runway.
The investigation
Post-incident interviews with the pilot revealed that the gear retraction was unintentional. The pilot explained that his normal routine for touch-and-go operations involves retracting the flaps immediately after liftoff while keeping the landing gear down. On this occasion, he mistakenly activated the gear retraction switch instead of the flap lever.
Findings
The primary factor in this incident was the inadvertent retraction of the landing gear during a critical phase of flight. This action significantly degraded the aircraft's climb performance, forcing the pilot to abort the takeoff. The error stemmed from a confusion between flap and gear control inputs during a high-workload environment.