Three Greens
Gear management, distraction, and the Arrow's most common fatal trap at Peter O Knight
The scenario
Field: Peter O Knight Airport (KTPF), Tampa, FL — elevation 8 ft MSL. You are returning to land on Runway 04, heading 37°. KTPF is a non-towered field operating on CTAF; the overlying Tampa Class B begins at 1,200 ft MSL, so your pattern is flown entirely in Class G.
Aircraft: Piper Arrow (PA-28R-201), solo, within limits. The Arrow is a complex airplane: hydraulically actuated retractable gear, constant-speed propeller, fuel-injected Lycoming IO-360. Fuel selector is on LEFT. Nothing squawked on the preflight.
Situation: You flew a short cross-country and are now inbound to KTPF. The pattern is busy — a Cessna is on a long final for Runway 22 and another aircraft just announced a touch-and-go on Runway 36. You're monitoring CTAF, managing your position, and trying to slot into the flow for Runway 04.
Environment: Clear and a million, light wind, no mechanical concerns noted in flight. The distraction is entirely self-generated — traffic calls, frequency congestion, and the workload of flying a complex airplane back into a short, busy field.
Know before you fly: Off the departure end of Runway 04 (climb-out heading 37°) lies dense urban development — there is no viable off-airport landing option in that direction. Off Runway 22 (217°), Runway 18 (173°), and Runway 36 (353°), the dominant off-field environment is open water. Any power loss off those ends is a ditching scenario, not a field landing.
- {'label': 'Field', 'value': 'KTPF · Peter O Knight'}
- {'label': 'Runways', 'value': '4/22 · 18/36'}
- {'label': 'Elevation', 'value': '8 ft'}
- {'label': 'Aircraft', 'value': 'PA-28R'}
- {'label': 'Dominant phase', 'value': 'Landing / Approach'}
The decision
Before you enter the downwind for Runway 04, which of these are actively in your scan? (Pick all that apply — no wrong answers; this records your baseline.)
What the record shows
What the NTSB PA-28R files show
Gear-up landings in the Piper Arrow are not rare events — they appear consistently in the NTSB database across decades and variants (PA-28R-180, -200, -201, -201T). The probable cause language is nearly identical across cases: the pilot failed to extend the landing gear before landing due to distraction and failure to conduct the before-landing checklist.
CEN24LA288 (2024, PA-28R-180): The pilot was distracted by skydiving operations and difficulty locating an unfamiliar airport. The before-landing checklist was not completed. The left main and nose gear were not fully locked at touchdown.
CEN25LA133 (2025, PA-28R-201T): The pilot was distracted by an external seatbelt issue and another aircraft in the pattern. The prelanding checklist was omitted. Gear-up landing resulted.
CEN25LA120 (2025, PA-28R-200): An instructional flight. Radio traffic distracted both pilot and instructor. The flight crew failed to verify gear extension before landing. Gear-up landing resulted.
CEN11LA418 (2011, PA-28R-201): The hydraulic power pack motor failed. The pilot did not use the emergency free-fall extension system. Wheels-up landing resulted. The emergency system existed and was not used.
WPR22LA040 (2021, PA-28R-200): An improper bolt installed during maintenance prevented the right main gear from extending. The pilot landed on the left main and nose gear only. This is the mechanical failure variant — not pilot error, but the outcome is the same.
The pattern across all cases: distraction (traffic, radio, unfamiliar airport, maintenance issues) disrupts the checklist flow; the gear warning horn is either ignored or silenced; no final gear confirmation is made; the airplane touches down on its belly.
These accidents occurred at airports across the United States — not at KTPF. Peter O Knight is your home field. The scenario is built from those real events to train you before the distraction finds you here.
One additional KTPF-specific reality: if a go-around from Runway 04 becomes an engine-out emergency, the climb-out heading of 37° takes you over dense urban development with no viable off-airport landing option. Off Runways 22, 18, and 36, the dominant environment is open water — a ditching scenario. Know your environment before you need it.
Key lesson — The Arrow's gear warning horn is a reminder, not a checklist substitute. GUMPS on downwind — Gas, Undercarriage DOWN, Mixture, Prop, Seatbelts — followed by a verbal three-green confirmation on final is the complete loop. Silencing the horn instead of running the checklist removes the only automated safeguard and leaves a single point of failure: your memory, under distraction.
Debrief — teaching points
GUMPS on downwind is not optional in the Arrow.
The Arrow's hydraulic gear system requires a deliberate handle selection and time to cycle — the gear does not extend instantly. Running GUMPS abeam the numbers on downwind gives the system time to extend and lock before you turn base. Deferring the check to base or final compresses the confirmation window and eliminates recovery time if the gear fails to extend normally. Every approach, every time: Gas (fuel selector LEFT or RIGHT, quantity checked), Undercarriage (handle DOWN, three green lights), Mixture (rich for landing), Prop (full forward), Seatbelts (on).
Three green lights mean three gear legs locked — verify all three, every time.
One green light is not three. A partial extension (one main gear not locked, as in WPR22LA040) will show fewer than three greens. The verbal callout 'gear down, three green' forces you to count. A glance that registers 'green' without counting is not a confirmation. The gear handle position is a secondary check — it shows commanded position, not actual gear state. The lights show actual position.
The gear warning horn is a reminder — silencing it is not an action.
The Arrow's gear warning horn activates when manifold pressure is reduced with the gear retracted — it is designed to interrupt you at exactly the moment you reduce power on downwind. Silencing it without extending the gear removes the only automated prompt in the system. The correct response to the horn is to run GUMPS and extend the gear, then confirm three green. If you silence it and continue, you have converted a reminder into a trap.
Know the emergency free-fall extension — and use it.
CEN11LA418 is the cautionary case: the hydraulic power pack motor failed, the emergency free-fall extension system was available and functional, and the pilot did not use it. The result was a wheels-up landing that the system was designed to prevent. In the Arrow, if the gear does not extend normally after selecting DOWN, the emergency extension procedure uses a manual free-fall system (location and procedure per your specific aircraft's POH). Knowing it exists is not enough — you must know where it is, how to actuate it, and practice it before you need it.
Distraction is the common cause — build checklist discipline that survives it.
Every PA-28R gear-up event in this scenario's seed set involved distraction: radio congestion, unfamiliar airports, other traffic, seatbelt issues, skydiving operations. The distraction itself is not the cause — the cause is a checklist habit that collapses under distraction. The fix is a non-negotiable trigger: power reduction on downwind equals GUMPS, no exceptions. Not 'when things settle down,' not 'after I sort out the traffic' — now, abeam the numbers, every approach. Build the habit so the distraction cannot interrupt it.
Built from the real accident record
Scenario built from multiple NTSB PA-28R gear-up landing events (CEN24LA288, WPR22LA040, CEN11LA418, CEN25LA133, CEN25LA120) and class-peer retractable-single gear-up events (ERA26LA045, CEN26LA028, WPR26LA016, ERA25LA343, CEN25LA319), all morphed onto the PA-28R at KTPF. Real events occurred at other airports.
NTSB reports: CEN24LA288 · WPR22LA040 · CEN11LA418 · CEN25LA133 · CEN25LA120 · ERA26LA045 · CEN26LA028 · WPR26LA016 · ERA25LA343 · CEN25LA319 · ATL97LA099 · NYC03LA109
ACS tasks: PA.IV.A — Normal Approach and Landing · PA.IV.B — Normal Approach and Landing (Complex Aircraft) · PA.I.H — Human Factors · PA.IX.A — Emergency Procedures
Step through the full decision tree, make the calls, and see where each choice leads — then debrief it with your CFI.
Open the interactive scenario →All sample scenarios · More Piper Arrow scenarios · More scenarios at KTPF