Question about the departure process?

Question

I work right on Orlando International Airport property......so I get to watch planes take off & land daily. Every now and then, I see a jet lift off without pulling up the landing gear until way after the take off.

I'm not a pilot at all but........isn't pulling up the landing gear one of the first things you do after rotation? Could it just be a simple mistake in the departure process?

Your thoughts.....thanks,

Primo

Answer 1

I was going to answer but Chester did it for me.

Answer 2

The landing gear is normally raised after reaching a safe flight speed and/or having passed the point where a safe landing can not be achieved on the runway they are departing. Speed, altitude, aircraft size, and runway length all play a part in determining this point.

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

combo of pilot preference, company policy, and yes occasionally a mistake (we are attending to other items)

some training says, leave the gear down, just in case you need to set it back down - (assuming you'll actually hit some runway after passing accellerated stop speed/distance)

i like to put the gear up right away, which gives me max climb - if i'm going down, doesn't matter if it is on the belly or gear....i'd rather have the altitude to work with, and the added glide of gear up.

company policy for professionals is also a factor - if company says the gear is down until you complete x,y,z, then it is down until then.

on the oops side, you have a departure procedure (navigation)  you must follow, and it distracts you from hitting the lever..you "get back to it"

Answer 4

We took off out of MCO a few weeks ago with one of the main gear wheel brakes broken and the procedure according to Airbus was to leave the gear down for 1 minute after liftoff.  So we did, and tower noticed and asked if we would be returning to the field and what assistance we needed.