Accident Details
At 1535 hours on 14 December 2016, a Cessna F177RG Cardinal RG, registration G-TOTO, sustained damage during a training flight at Denham Aerodrome in Buckinghamshire. The aircraft, manufactured in 1972 and powered by a single Lycoming IO-360-A1B6 piston engine, was on a flight to revalidate the handling pilot's Single Engine Piston (SEP) class rating. The crew consisted of two pilots; the commander held a Commercial Pilot's Licence and had 8,850 total flying hours, including 17 hours on type. No passengers were on board, and neither crew member was injured.
Flight Description
The handling pilot was flying a flapless circuit to Runway 24. On the crosswind leg, just before turning downwind, the handling pilot raised the landing gear. The commander noted that raising the landing gear was not standard procedure for circuits in this aircraft and intended to instruct the handling pilot to lower it once the gear had fully retracted. However, a prolonged exchange of radio communications from two aircraft ahead in the circuit distracted the handling pilot from lowering the gear, and the commander also failed to notice it had not been lowered. An additional distraction was an aircraft joining the circuit overhead. As a result, the landing gear was not lowered during the downwind checks. The commander reported that the low sun angle and attention required to trees on the flapless approach demanded greater than normal attention, and the landing was completed without selecting the landing gear down.
Post-Accident Inspection
After the aircraft was recovered, a maintenance inspection revealed that the landing gear warning horn was not functioning. The aircraft sustained damage to the propeller, engine, and fuselage.