Wheels-Up Landing at Rand Aerodrome Involving a Piper PA-28R-200 (ZS-BJH)

Incident Overview On 10 October 2007, a Piper PA-28R-200 with registration ZS-BJH made a wheels-up landing on Runway 35 at Rand Aerodrome, Gauteng. The aircraft was operating a private flight with one pilot and one passenger on board. ## Flight Details The pilot, aged 24, held a private pilot licence and had a total of 97.3 flying hours, including 23.7 hours on type. The flight departed Rand Aerodrome and proceeded to the general flying area, where the pilot performed several stall turns, one with the landing gear extended. The flight duration was approximately one hour. ## Landing and Damage Upon returning to Rand Aerodrome, the pilot selected full flaps at an indicated airspeed of 80 knots for landing on Runway 35. The pilot reported lowering the landing gear and observing three green lights, but stated, “I don’t know what happened.” The aircraft landed with the landing gear in the retracted position. No injuries were reported. The aircraft sustained slight damage to the trailing edge flaps inboard aft tips, scratches on the forward fuselage undersurface and nose landing-gear doors, and bent propeller blade tips. ## Investigation Findings Evidence indicated the landing gear was not extended, and the pilot most probably forgot to lower it, likely under the impression it was down and locked from the earlier stall turns. The aircraft maintenance organisation recovered the aircraft and performed retraction tests, which showed the landing gear operated satisfactorily. The last mandatory periodic inspection was certified on 27 August 2007 at 3,247.1 airframe hours, with 11.8 additional hours flown since.