Winter flying with retractable gear?

(Paul Tomblin) wrote in message ...
This will be my first winter flying the club's Lance. One instructor told
me that you want to tap the brakes before retracting the gear to dislodge
any slush or snow so that it doesn't freeze in the wheel well, and I read
somebody else saying that you should hold off retracting the gear after
take-off for a little while to blow the slush and snow off. Should I do
one or the other or both?

There are two things here. Tapping the brakes is something started in
WWII because a B-17 would tip over when the gear come up if the wheels
were spinning (imagine the gyro action happening on those big wheels).
I believe most large aircraft today automatically apply brake pressure
when the hydro lifts the gear.
In the Mooney world we always read about Mooney pilots taking off,
getting slush in the gear and then freezing at altitude. I don't know
how tapping the brakes would change that though.

-Robert, CFI and Mooney owner