History of the Flight
The aircraft, a Piper PA-28R-200-2 Cherokee Arrow II (registration G-AZSF), was being flown from the front left seat by a candidate pilot under the supervision of an examiner in the right seat. The purpose of the flight was to carry out a post-training skills test to enable the examiner to issue a Certificate of Competence (CAA form F170A), which is a prerequisite for undertaking a CAA skills test for the issue of a Commercial Pilot’s Licence.
The bulk of the assessment tasks had been completed, and the aircraft had returned to the airfield to complete the remaining circuit elements. During the first circuit, the examiner reminded the candidate to call the ‘reds, blues and three greens’ check out loud. This is a final check before landing to ensure the engine mixture and propeller controls are set to the correct position and the landing gear is locked down.
The second circuit was a bad weather circuit, which entails flying closer to the airfield and at a lower level to enable an aircraft to remain in sight of the airfield in poor visibility. The examiner called out “reds, blues and three greens” with the intention of reminding the candidate to call the checks out loud. The candidate understood this call to mean these checks had been completed.
The aircraft landed with the landing gear retracted and slid to a stop on the runway. The aircraft was shut down and the two uninjured occupants disembarked.
Damage
The propeller was damaged and the engine was shock-loaded. Damage also occurred to the underside of the fuselage and flaps.
Comment
The examiner reported that he had been closely monitoring the candidate’s bad weather circuit and approach and had not noticed that the landing gear remained retracted. The candidate, on hearing the instructor call ‘reds, blues and three greens’, assumed this meant the checks had been completed. In this high workload environment, the assumption may well have been subconsciously reinforced by the cross-cockpit authority gradient and that during training a student becomes used to following directions from an instructor. The result was that the candidate and the examiner each assumed the other had completed the final pre-landing checks.