Aero-Tips!

A good pilot is always learning -- how many times have you heard this old standard throughout your flying career? There is no truer statement in all of flying (well, with the possible exception of "there are no old, bold pilots.") It's part of what makes aviation so exciting for all of us... just when you think you've seen it all, along comes a scenario you've never imagined.

Aero-News has called upon the expertise of Thomas P. Turner, master CFI and all-around-good-guy, to bring our readers -- and us -- daily tips to improve our skills as aviators, and as representatives of the flying community. Some of them, you may have heard before... but for each of us, there will also be something we might never have considered before, or something that didn't "stick" the way it should have the first time we memorized it for the practical test.

It is our unabashed goal that "Aero-Tips" will help our readers become better, safer pilots -- as well as introducing our ground-bound readers to the concepts and principles that keep those strange aluminum-and-composite contraptions in the air... and allow them to soar magnificently through it.

Look for our daily Aero-Tips segments, coming each day to you through the Aero-News Network. Suggestions for future Aero-Tips are always welcome, as are additions or discussion of each day's tips. Remember... when it comes to being good pilots, we're all in this together.

Aero-Tips 02.08.06

"Positive rate, gear up." What pilot doesn’t want to command an airplane with retractable landing gear? What advantages does gear retraction bring? And what’s the down side?

For a Few Knots More

The first installation of retractable landing gear dates to the early 1920 Dayton-Wright Racer. Early wind tunnel studies showed that retracting the landing gear on those early, very strut-intensive airplanes could reduce an airplane’s overall drag by up to 50%. Soon retractable gear (RG) design became synonymous with high-speed flight.

In more modern airplane designs are aerodynamically clean enough that "sucking up the gear" creates a much less impressive performance gain. Look at airplanes that have essentially identical fixed and RG gear versions -- the Piper Archer and Arrow, Cessna Skyhawk and 172RG (above), Piper Cherokee Six and Lance, etc. -- and you’ll find that retracting the landing gear results, on average, in only a 10 to 15 knot increase in maximum cruise speed. In many cases the RG variant also includes a horsepower advantage over the fixed-gear version, so the value of retracting the gear is even less pronounced.

Recent designs by Cirrus and Columbia (below) make it clear advances in streamlining permit fixed-gear airplanes to perform at heretofore RG-only airspeeds.

The Downside

The most obvious downside to RGs is the cost of insurance. Insuring an RG airplane costs up to half again the fixed gear variant. If you’re new to the model or RG airplanes as a class, the cost of insurance will be even greater -- if it’s available to you at all.

Why? The rate of landing gear-related mishaps (gear up landings, gear collapse on the ground, and mechanical problems) is abysmal. Read the Landing Gear-Related Mishaps (LGRMs) section of www.thomapsturner.com. Nearly half of all reported accidents in RG airplanes are LGRMs, and the U.S. insurance industry pays over $1 million every month in LGRM claims. No wonder it’s so hard to get insurance when you’re new to RG airplanes, and why when you can get coverage it’s so expensive.

Aero-tip of the day: Recognize the very high rate of landing gear-related mishaps in retractable-gear airplanes. If you fly an RG airplane, actively work to avoid those mishaps.

FMI: Aero-Tips