landing gear up?

[paulmakin]

my work-base is roughly parallel to the heathrow flightpath so take-offs/landings all day. noticed a take-off yesterday that seemed to have wheels still down as it went past us - approx 5 miles west of the airport.

out of the ordinary (or not ?) and wondered if it was a problem or if there would be any reason why wheels might still be down. if it was a problem, would they keep going, return, divert, etc ?

paul

[48k]

Possibly cooling the brakes.

[RCBRG]

often done when the aircraft has a deactivated brake unit

[5150]

To answer your other questions; highly unlikely they would continue to destination (Unless it was a gear down ferry flight for maintenance). Fuel calculations are based on the wheels being up, but if it was intentional, flight planning departments can base a flight on it being done with wheels down (restricted on speed and altitude). Pilot's also have the tables on board to calculate this, but if it was intentional, it'd be done on the ground.

Brake cooling is a possibility, but I've never done it in almost 20 years of commercial flying! The only time I've had the gear down for longer than normal after take-off, was when I had a computer failure that wouldn't retract them when called for! #bloodyairbus!

[Zoobeef]

I was on a military flight 10 years ago (tristar maybe?) That put its wheels back down once clear of the airport to cool the brakes ready for landing at Brize.
We had popped in to Edinburgh IIRC to drop someone off.

[Prawo Jazdy]

All types and SOPs vary, but on 'mine' you have to wait for the brakes to cool to below a certain limit before take off. The thinking being that if you need to reject the take off you don't want to be doing it with brakes that are already cooked.

[grumpy52]

Didn't the Vulcan get flown back to base with it's gear down after a problem at another airfield .
Many airlines carry out work on their fleet away from main airport hubs .
Lufthansa use Norwich.

[pushthebutton]

It may have been due to one of the wheel brake systems being inoperative meaning that you have to wait 2 minutes for the associated wheel to stop rotating before raising the gear.

What aircraft type was it?

[Brother D]

grumpy52 said:

Didn't the Vulcan get flown back to base with it's gear down after a problem at another airfield .
Many airlines carry out work on their fleet away from main airport hubs .
Lufthansa use Norwich.

Are you referring to this (more of accident than problem)!
https://youtu.be/R3iMw7Q7H68

[DangerMonkey]

They may have just forgotten.....

[spitfire-ian]

Brother D said:

Are you referring to this (more of accident than problem)!
https://youtu.be/R3iMw7Q7H68

I think he means this one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxshOMFTZdM

It was flown back to Doncaster with the gear down just in case.