Cessna R/TR182 Type Club Becomes First Partner in Put Your Gear Down Landing Gear Safety Campaign
Why It MattersThe partnership shows how type clubs and safety foundations are pooling fleet-specific gear-collapse data to address what operators of retractable-gear aircraft treat as a recurring total-loss risk.
What happened
The Cessna R/TR182 Type Club has joined the Put Your Gear Down campaign as its first partner organization, with the announcement made at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2026. Put Your Gear Down is a safety initiative launched by the ABS Air Safety Foundation designed to give pilots, owners, and mechanics training, tools, and habits aimed at preventing landing gear mishaps.
According to ABS Air Safety Foundation officials, landing gear accidents are the most frequent accident type among most retractable-gear aircraft, and because gear mishaps often result in aircraft being written off as total losses, they represent the single greatest threat to the longevity of the retractable-gear fleet. Scott Sellers, co-founder of the Cessna R/TR182 Type Club, said retractable Cessna R/TR182 owners and pilots face the same challenge as ABS members, citing nearly identical figures for gear collapses and gear-up arrivals, along with a shared need for improved maintenance practices. "We look forward to engaging with the campaign," Sellers said.
As part of the partnership, the Cessna R/TR182 Type Club has linked to PutYourGearDown.com and added maintenance information and pilot best practices specific to retractable-gear Cessna R182s and TR182s to its own website.
Industry impact & what to watch
This kind of cross-organization partnership reflects how type clubs for specific retractable-gear models are increasingly aligning with broader safety foundations rather than running independent awareness efforts. Pooling maintenance guidance and incident patterns across fleets lets owners of different aircraft types see that gear collapses and gear-up landings are a shared mechanical and procedural problem, not one confined to a single model line.
For the retractable-gear segment, the economics are straightforward: a gear mishap frequently ends in a total-loss write-off, so campaigns like Put Your Gear Down function as fleet-preservation efforts as much as safety programs, since each incident permanently removes an aircraft from the active pool.
What happens next will depend on whether other type clubs follow the Cessna R/TR182 Type Club's lead in becoming formal partners, and whether the maintenance information and best practices now posted on the club's website translate into measurable reductions in gear-related incidents within that specific fleet.
