"Tom S." wrote in message ...
"Jeff" wrote in message ...
At what point do people in these situations lose control?
Why do they lose control - why a difference in complex and fixed gear?
I dont understand why someone would lose control in a complex and not
fixed.

A retractable will accelerate much more quickly, and being faster, the spin
will happen much more quickly.

The "loss of control" in the study was not necessarily a spin, nor
is a spin the outcome IRL loss of control accidents.

However, Jeff, I think the basic principle is right. In general,
there's less drag in a retract, and the margin between any sort
of distraction vs. loss of control or overspeeding and stressing
the airframe is shorter.

Some of the planes studied are also noted for responsive handling
rather than stability (ie Bonanza vs. Archer, Malibu vs 172) which
may also be an issue.

Of course, retractables are flown FOR SPEED, whereas fixed gears are not
necessarily in that same category.

I don't think difference in cruise speed is the issue. If you read
the study carefully, IIRC the vacuum failure was done during climbout
after a missed approach -- a point where the speed difference is
not as large. I believe the same protocol was followed during the
previous simulator study.

I note that there are several pairs of planes where the retract
apparently has a higher LOC accident rate than its fixed gear
"brother" yet the handling is pretty much the same and the
speed difference not that great. One can rationalize that difference
as being caused by different uses, but somehow I don't think people
are buying fixed-gear Saratogas to pop around the pattern on a nice
day.

Cheers,
Sydney