Leaving the gears out.

[Ace_777]

I was playing football yesterday at my local park....whenever theres a plane I always look up.....much to the dismay of my teammates....but the plane i was looking at was an A340-600  and it still had its wheels outside !!. I live about 10 miles away from Heathrow and I just couldn't figure out why this guy (or gal  ;)) still had the wheels out. Usually they put em in straight after takeoff  :P but this plane still had em out.

Me confuzzled  :) I hope someone can shed light onto this  :)

[beefhole]

There's no way they had them out if they weren't landing-the only thing I can think of if they had in fact just taken off would be that they were attemtping to maintain a low altitude at a low airpseed.  It is common to leave the gear out to incease drag on those kinds of manuevers.

Or, perhaps it was a malfunction. (I really don't think pilot error is possible in this situation) You're sure they weren't landing?  If the pilots anticipate a heavy workload for the final approach, it's not uncommon for them to put the gear down early.

[C]

Must've been on the approach...

[Ace_777]

I'm more than positive that the plane wasn't on approach because after a few seconds it had put its gears back up and then it turned right about 60 degrees. It was so weird  :P.

I think beefhole has the closest answer. It makes sense too me. But i cant think of anything else :S.

[Craig.]

It is quite possible it was a training flight.