Never ending rain - Was fixed gear vs. retracts

[Anthony Abdullah]

The weather is a not so subtle threat to anyone even considering flying. Mother nature is sitting there on high with the rain and the wind machine saying "go ahead, make my day". Someone out there in D4 pattern land must've entertained the thought of taking a practice flight today. Pretty soon we will all have to wear aluminum foil hats to keep our thoughts secret, or does that only work for aliens?

"Atwood, Mark" <atwoodm at paragon-inc.com> wrote:No doubt...and I'm not even scheduled to fly today :)


-----Original Message-----
From: Anthony Abdullah [mailto:aabdu at sbcglobal.net]
Sent: Mon 7/21/2003 12:12 PM
To: discussion at nsrca.org
Cc: 
Subject: RE: fixed gear vs. retracts

Mark, they say fear is a sign of intelligence, and I have none. 

Now that the All Star break (nationals) is over and we will be gearing up for the second half of the season and some more good practice days, did you look out of your window today? The Atwood rain machine is in high gear without missing a beat.

"Atwood, Mark" wrote:
Anthony...does the phrase "Kiss of death" mean anything to you??? Jeeze...talk about tempting the retract gods...


-----Original Message-----
From: Anthony Abdullah [mailto:aabdu at sbcglobal.net]
Sent: Mon 7/21/2003 11:04 AM
To: discussion at nsrca.org
Cc: 
Subject: RE: fixed gear vs. retracts

I never claimed to be the best pilot out there, but in the five or six years I have been flying pattern with an LA-1, PA-2, an SL-1, a Bridi Great Escape, Bridi XLT, a 60 sized Conquest VII, Saphir II, and an Eppicure II, all with retracts! I have had to remove and straighten the struts exactly twice and both times have been on hard dead stick landings while practicing! Either I am using some exceptionally tough metal only found in the great state of Ohio, or the whole retract maintenance issue is overblown. I am not arguing the fact that some people can and do have problems with bent struts, but other than a little extra time to make sure they are set up to rotate lock and clear properly I have NOT experienced much failure with them, and NEVER once at a contest. I've had headers, couplers, servos, engine, and thumbs fail at contests, but (knock on wood) never my retracts. In fact, I have seen many more sets of fixed gear get sheared off at contests than retracts fail. Perhaps I
just don't get out enough.

Nik Middleton wrote:While it's true that at comps the plane's carried out, I spend far more time
at the practice field. I find it helpful not to have to ask someone to
carry it for me. Still it's only a slight bonus. However I do find fixed
gear better at handling slightly longer grass. I don't recall having to
straiten my fixed gear, but I know that with retracts I had to check them
every few flights. Still miss putting the gear up though, nothing like a
slow low pass with gear up.

rgds


-----Original Message-----
From: discussion-request at nsrca.org
[mailto:discussion-request at nsrca.org]On Behalf Of GeorgeF.
Sent: Friday, July 18, 2003 1:44 PM
To: discussion at nsrca.org
Subject: Re: fixed gear vs. retracts


At 05:13 PM 7/17/2003 -0400, you wrote:
>Anthony,
>
>"It is true I don't taxi about with them---" I hope Margaretta (sp OK?)
>is reading the message. That's why Anthony doesn't have to taxi!!!!


A lot of fields would rather have you carry your planes to the flight line
for saftey. I've yet to attend a pattern contest where I had seen pilots
taxi out to the runway.

Sounds like the "taxi" issue is more like an excuse rather than improving
flying skills.... Kinda like todays schools, "dumb down" the test so
everyone wins?

George

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