Colorado Aviation Accidents & Incidents

On August 18, 1995, at 2110 mountain daylight time, a Beech 35N, N149G, landed with the landing gear retracted at Creede, Colorado. The private pilot was not injured and the aircraft sustained substantial damage. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed for this 14 CFR Part 91 flight and a VFR flight plan was filed. The flight departed Trinidad, Colorado, at 1900.

According to the pilot, his first approach to landing was high and he elected to go around. Due to the altitude of the airport which was 8,680 feet above mean sea level (MSL), with a density altitude of 10,800 feet MSL, the pilot said he raised the landing gear to improve aircraft performance. During the second approach the pilot said he forgot to lower the landing gear and made a gear up landing.

In a telephone interview with the pilot, he stated that he heard the gear warning horn and misinterpreted it to be the stall horn, so he added some power and increased his speed slightly. The horn discontinued so in his interpretation the problem that was identified by the horn no longer existed.

According to Beech Aircraft, the stall horn and the gear horn are the same and are triggered from different sources. The tones are slightly different. However, due to system design, the landing gear warning horn can be silenced by the addition of power, and according to Beech, if the pilot misinterprets the horn to be a stall warning and adds power he can falsely silence the horn and think he has corrected the problem. FAILURE BY THE PILOT TO FOLLOW THE CHECKLIST AND LOWER THE LANDING GEAR.