What indicates a failure of the gear-down sensing system?

• A. Inconsistent signals, missing green indication, or warning lights indicating gear not down/locked.
• B. Clean, consistent signals and a solid green indication even when not down.
• C. A gear-down sensing system failure always triggers a full force landing gear deployment.
• D. The absence of any warning lights always indicates system is fine.

Answer: (A)

The key idea is that the gear-down sensing system must provide reliable, consistent feedback about whether the landing gear is actually down and locked. When this system fails, you’ll typically see signs that the feedback is not trustworthy: signals that don’t match the real gear position, a missing green gear-down/locked indication even though the gear is down, or a warning light telling you the gear isn’t down or locked.

In normal operation, the signals align with the actual gear position and the cockpit shows a solid green indication when the gear is down and locked. If the green light doesn’t illuminate when the gear is down, or if you encounter inconsistent readings or a warning that the gear isn’t down/locked, these are clear indicators of a fault in the gear-down sensing system.

Scenarios that simply show a clean, consistent indication or that the light would suggest normal status while the gear isn’t actually down would not reflect a proper function of the system and could be dangerous. Likewise, a failure of the sensing system does not automatically force the gear to deploy with maximum force; there are procedures for alternate extension if needed, but that’s not a guaranteed or normal automatic outcome. And the absence of warning lights does not guarantee everything is fine—warning circuits can fail independently of the gear-position signals.