Colorado Aviation Accidents & Incidents

On June 30, 2002, at 0811 mountain daylight time, a Mooney M20C, N6283U, owned and operated by the pilot, was substantially damaged when it landed gear up at Front Range Airport (FTG), Watkins, Colorado. The private pilot, the sole occupant aboard, was not injured. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed, and no flight plan had been filed for the local personal flight being conducted under Title 14 CFR Part 91. The flight originated from Front Range Airport at 0755.

In a telephone interview and reiterated in his accident report, the pilot said that the purpose of the flight was to practice touch-and-go landings. He said he "forgot to put the gear down" when he made his first approach to runway 26 and landed wheels up. Damage consisted of a bent propeller, scraped panels underneath the airplane, a broken antenna, and bent ribs. the pilot's failure to use the pre-landing checklist, resulting in an inadvertent wheels up landing.