Aircraft and Flight
A Cessna 177RG Cardinal RG, registration G-BBHI, manufactured in 1972, was involved in an accident on 28 May 2012 at Newtownards Airport in County Down. The aircraft was powered by a single Lycoming IO-360-A1B6 piston engine. The flight was a training session for the owner pilot, who held a Commercial Pilot's Licence with 1,798 total flying hours (26 on type) and was working to regain his Certificate of Revalidation and IMC rating. An instructor was on board.
History of the Flight
Earlier that day, the pilot had flown for 1 hour and 10 minutes with one instructor, practicing general handling, stalls, forced landings, and glide approaches to Runway 22. In the afternoon, he flew as pilot-under-training with a different instructor, performing similar exercises and concluding with an overhead join and standard circuit to a touch-and-go landing on Runway 22. The pilot was dissatisfied with the landing due to a crosswind and requested another attempt, but instead of a simple circuit, he told the instructor he wanted to leave the circuit to test the recently worked-on autopilot. They departed the circuit and tried various autopilot modes, which still exhibited problems. After some time, the instructor expressed concern about returning before the airfield closed at 18:00 hrs.
Accident Sequence
With no other traffic, they joined the circuit on left base leg for Runway 22. Both pilots stated their attention was focused on the upcoming crosswind landing, which appeared satisfactory but a little low. As they rounded out for landing, a loud scraping noise indicated the landing gear was not extended. The aircraft slid on its belly for approximately 150 m before stopping. There was no fire, and both occupants exited normally. The airfield fire service attended quickly.
Damage
The accident caused damage to the propeller tips, the fuselage underside, the radio navigational aid antenna, and the engine sustained shock loading.
Contributory Factors
Both pilots admitted they forgot to extend the landing gear. They believed the major contributory factor was their concentration on handling the crosswind landing, particularly as the approach was low. The instructor noted he may have been too relaxed due to confidence in the pilot's abilities and experience. A further factor was that G-BBHI was not fitted with an audio or visual landing gear configuration warning; later serial numbers of this model include such a device.