Backup for dropping the gear

(Paul Tomblin) writes:

Yeah, it looks like it would need to be "Do not leak hydraulic fluid in
excess of max. gear extension speed."

On the Lance (which is the only plane I have any experience with), even if
you lost hydraulic fluid, air pressure would hold the gear up against the
springs until you dropped down to max gear extension speed. I suspect
you'd get a bit more drag from the gear drooping slightly into the
airstream, though.

Now *that* makes sense. I caught that there was a sensor connected to
the pitot tube that interacted with the gear, but it's clever to use
airflow to keep it from dropping on its own too soon. Thank you for
explaining it.

(BTW, some of my confusion with hydraulics is because of my background
with farm machinery where the oil flows through the valve when "off" -
not because the explanations in this thread were misleading.)

--kyler