Thread: Gear up takeoff
View Single Post
  #4  
Old July 19th 07, 03:08 PM posted to rec.aviation.piloting
[email protected]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,130
Default Gear up takeoff

On Jul 18, 2:51 pm, "Al G" wrote:
"Andrew Gideon" wrote in message

news
On Wed, 18 Jul 2007 14:26:45 +0000, john hawkins wrote:


don't know anything about the cited incident but. Ever watch an older
mooney doing the gearup dip on takeoff? pulling that johnson bar takes
your attention off the flight attitude.


Cessna gear (ie. an R182) folds under in such a way that drag is
increased during the retraction (or extension) beyond the level of drag
with the gear extended (or retracted, of course {8^). I've never thought
it that much that it would cause an altitude loss, but perhaps under the
right circumstances...?


- Andrew


The old 210's and skymasters were the same way. Once all of those doors
start opening, there is
a slew of new drag. An Ex-Boss of mine was demonstrating the squat switch
to a prospective buyer, when he retracted the 210 nose gear while sitting
firmly on the ground.

Al G


We have an R182. The gear retracting will bring the nose
up as the weight of the mains shifts back. The altitude doesn't want
to change much with the gear in transit. The main wheels are small-
diameter, wider 15 x 6.00-6's, and they don't have much more drag
sideways than they do edge-on.
The nosewheel has the squat switch. The mains, being
spring-steel tubes, don't have any movement to fire a squat switch.
This is a distinct disadvantage, becuase the nosegear has to be
collapsed a little to open the switch, and in the landing roll the
strut can remain extended until brakes are applied. Add to that the
often-sticky oleo setup on these things, and you have a switch that
might remain closed until tiedown. A decent pilot will use aerodynamic
braking and will be careful not to slam the nose onto the runway, so
that silly squat switch is closed for a long time after touchdown and
if he has the habit of grabbing the flap switch in the rollout he'll
sooner or later select gear-up instead and get a nasty surprise. We
nearly had it happen once during an evaluation of another pilot.

Dan