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After the Dust Settles: Protecting Yourself

Reportable accident? Not according to the NTSB regs. If you report it, you'll just bring unwanted attention to yourself

Despite our determination to do better, we pilots are human. Frustratingly, because of that we make mistakes. Fortunately, most of those mistakes damage only our self-image as steely-eyed superior beings although from time to time they result in damage to our airplanes. 

We’ve been trained to keep an aircraft right side up and on the runway’s straight and narrow and we do a pretty good job. However, we haven’t been trained in what to do in the aftermath of a misstep—the time that while we stayed on the runway’s straight and narrow confines, we did so after forgetting to extend the landing gear. 

Rick Durden

Senior Editor Rick Durden has written for Aviation Consumer since 1994 and specializes in aviation law. Rick is an active CFII and holds an ATP with type ratings in the Douglas DC-3 and Cessna Citation. He is the author of The Thinking Pilot’s Flight Manual or, How to Survive Flying Little Airplanes and Have a Ball Doing It, Vols. 1 & 2.