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Re:Judge: Citibank isn't entitled to $500M it sent to variou... by sokoloff on Friday February 19, 2021 @10:16AM (#26194034)
My “gear before flaps” is an example of just such a workflow. If I always do that, it’s extremely hard to get the airplane anywhere near the runway without realizing something’s wrong. (Both the gear and the flaps add considerable drag, helping the airplane go down and/or slow down.)

The only thing that I can think of that directly work this way are some of the gust locks (to prevent control surfaces from banging about in the wind while parked) are required to be designed so the airplane can’t be started and taxied out with them in place. (That’s arguably a poka-yoke as much as a procedure, but probably still fits.) Mine simultaneously locks the yoke and has a plastic flag that blocks the starter switch when installed.

If the airplane offered a mechanism to inhibit flap operation unless the gear was down and locked (a poka-yoke enforcement of my procedure), I’d decline it/argue against it. In the event of a gear failure or a forced water landing, I want to have the flaps without the gear being safe and, especially for water, I don’t want to have to look up the abnormal/emergency flap extension without gear in a QRH while doing everything else needed while descending for a forced landing.

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