Down Three Red

Waiting in line for takeoff from San Diego 

San Diego has a noise curfew that prohibits takeoff before 6:30am.  No need to set an alarm clock if you live off the west end of the runway as the first MD80 departure of the day could wake the dead.  Most of the airlines push off the gate around 6:15 taxi down and wait for the clock to click past 6:29.  As you can see from the picture, my flight was about number 5 in line this morning...we rotated at 6:36.

It was a beautiful southern California morning with good visibility, warm temperatures and light winds.  I landed almost three hours later in Dallas, Texas where the temperature was hovering around 40 degrees Fahrenheit with cloud bases at 300 feet and visibility described in feet, not miles.  I was at the controls as Regional Approach vectored us in for an ILS approach to runway 36L.  "Turn left heading 030, maintain 4000 until established, cleared for the ILS 36L."

The visibility wasn't great, but it was a simple approach with enough room between minimums and the actual weather conditions that I was confident we would land.  I left the auto pilot engaged as we intercepted the glide slope and began our final descent.  We were in icing conditions with engine and wing heat on and I needed to keep the engines spooled up to provide enough heat to keep the wings warm, so I lowered the flaps earlier than normal and asked the Captain to lower the gear as we descended through 1800 feet AGL.  I heard the nose gear doors open and felt the mains drop into position, but in my peripheral vision I could see the glaring red lights indicating a gear unsafe condition...

In hind sight, what surprises me most about what happened next was how much information passed though my head in such a short amount of time.  It was only after we were safely on the ground and the Captain and I began to talk about what had happened that we realized how much we had considered in such a short period.

...I felt the gear fall into place and was reasonable sure at least one of the three landing gear was down...three red lights on the panel indicate none of the three gear is down and locked...did I forget to turn the hydraulic pumps on high?  No, both engine driven hydraulic pumps were selected to high...check the nose gear indicating pin...it's up indicating the nose gear is down, but the light still shines red...cycle the gear?  Maybe we'll get lucky...1600 AGL now, precious little time to salvage a landing...bingo fuel is 9,400 lbs. and we're at 10,800 right now...not enough for a go around and another attempt...what's my alternate airport...visibility is too low to ask the tower for a visual check on the gear...

As those last few thoughts were passing through my head the Captain lowered the gear handle a second time and in a few seconds we had three green lights.  Clearly the situation was much improved, but I still had work to do.  I was behind now and needed to be fully configured by 1000 feet AGL or our company procedures would require a go-around.  I lowered the rest of the flaps and slowed the aircraft to approach speed and managed to stabilize the thrust as the aircraft announced "1000."  The surface report that I had rechecked only minutes earlier claimed a ceiling of 700 feet and visibility of 1 1/2 miles.  But as we passed through 700 ft, the rain that had been falling lightly for a few minutes now intensified and it was clear the weather was lower than reported.

The Captain reported the runway lights as we descended through 300 feet and called the runway in sight at 200 feet above touchdown.  As the mains contacted the runway, the tower controller reported runway visibility of 5000RVR.  I slowed the aircraft to taxi speed and stepped on the right rudder to steer toward the high speed exit and noticed my heart rate...slightly elevated to say the least.