fixed gear vs. retracts

[Anthony Abdullah]

George I must agree with you, I love my retracts and have not had a problem with them on any pattern plane in years. I fly from one of the roughest landfill fields in the country and still have very few problems. It is true I don't taxi about with them, but that minor inconvenience is more than made up for by the considerable Cool Factor! One of the reasons I got into pattern was the sleek gear up passes that I saw Mike Klein making with his pattern planes. When we have fun flys one of the biggest attractions is my Epicure II breaking ground and immediately sucking up the gear. Personally I get a little mental boost from retracts. A smooth graceful takeoff followed by immediately retracting the gear coupled with a shallow climb out kind of serves notice that what follows is going to be special. When the gear is up I have my game face on and I'm all business. When the gear comes down for landing that is my cue to exhale and finally relax and set up for landing. It just makes so much
 sense to me. I know none of these are engineering or aerodynamic reasons for retracts, but that is the part of pattern that is art and not science. Has nothinig to do with weight or convenience, just makes the plane special. 

"GeorgeF." <av8tor at flash.net> wrote:At 08:39 PM 7/16/2003 -0400, you wrote:
>The composite fixed gear designs of today are quite the overkill in terms 
>of strength, rigidity and weight. They could be made far lighter, less 
>rigid and cheaply enough where, as they break on a hard landing, simply 
>pull the pieces out and toss them


If people would learn how to land then strength wouldn't be a problem. It 
surprises me to hear people say they liked fixed gear better because they 
were bending/breaking retracts.

Can anyone truthfully say that fixed gear look better? Thought pattern was 
about smooth, graceful, and looking goood?

Been into R/C since 1983. I have YET to break a gear and only ever bent 
one gear ever so slightly. 99% of my flights were off grass fields and 
some of them were pretty rough. No I didn't use oversized balloon tires, I 
used small chrome weeks with foam tires.

I guess maybe the maneuver of the month should be LANDINGS?

George
http://www.MilAirComms.com

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