What happened
On 18 February 2018, a Piper PA-24-250 Comanche, registration N7832P, was performing a private flight involving circuits at Chiltern Air Park, Oxfordshire. The pilot had previously departed from Benson airfield and had contacted the airfield owner to confirm runway conditions prior to arrival.
While joining the circuit, the pilot became preoccupied with navigating around noise abatement zones. Although the pilot performed a routine 'touch drill'—a check of the mixture, propeller, and landing gear lights—the landing gear was never actually moved to the down position. Consequently, the aircraft touched down on the grass runway with the undercarriage retracted, resulting in damage to the propeller and the underside of the fuselage. There were no injuries to the pilot.
The investigation
The investigation established that the transition from the departure at Benson to the arrival at Chiltern was very brief, leaving little time between departure checks and the need to join the circuit. The pilot reported that the necessity of maintaining a lookout for other aircraft and adhering to noise abatement procedures led to a rushed downwind check. While the pilot believed he had verbally acknowledged the undercarriage status during the 'reds, blues, greens' check, he failed to physically verify that the green landing gear lights were illuminated or manually select the gear down.