Anyone who caught this week's episode of The West Wing would have seen = that Hollywood has been up to their old tricks again. The premise of the show was a faulty nose gear indicator light on Air = Force One caused the aircraft to circle for four hours with the = President on board. The problem first came to light when the aircraft = began it's initial decent into Andews Airforce Base. This begs the = following questions: Who in their right mind would lower the landing gear at 33,000 ft? = Isn't it normal to lower the gear somewhere around the outer marker when = the aircraft is on short final? Wouldn't flying with the gear down at = that altitude and that speed make the aircraft more difficult to handle? If they did not receive an indication that the nose gear was down and = locked would they not try cycling the gear a couple of times to try and = clear the problem? Supposedly they could not do this because if there = was a hydraulic leak, cycling the gear could cause the aircraft to = explode. Would they continue to cruise around at 33,000 feet with the back gear = down while an F-16 tried to determine if the nose gear was down? Later in the show, under the auspices of briefing the press secretary = they provided some maintenance information about Air Force One. They = said that every 152 days the aircraft is completely taken apart and put = back together. I am assuming they were referring to a D-Check. If that = is true and a D-Check is preformed on Air Force One twice a year, what = is the standard for airlines? How often are they required to peform D-Checks?