Winter flying with retractable gear?

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?

--
Paul Tomblin http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
The biggest problem with democracy is that it is, in effect, the rule
by the whim of the moment.
-- Keith Glass

I do both on the Arrow I fly.
Some will argue that leaving the gear down longer just freezed the slush
faster. To me the most important is to blow it out of the brakes.

Paul Tomblin wrote:
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?

I do both on the Arrow I fly.
Some will argue that leaving the gear down longer just freezed the slush
faster. To me the most important is to blow it out of the brakes.

Paul Tomblin wrote:
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?

In article ,
Paul Tomblin wrote:
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.

My understanding is that you don't want the gear to freeze in the gear
well, so you leave it down after takeoff to ensure that anything that's
going to freeze will, and then if the gear is going to get stuck it's
stuck down, not up.

--
Ben Jackson

http://www.ben.com/

In article ,
Paul Tomblin wrote:
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.

My understanding is that you don't want the gear to freeze in the gear
well, so you leave it down after takeoff to ensure that anything that's
going to freeze will, and then if the gear is going to get stuck it's
stuck down, not up.

--
Ben Jackson

http://www.ben.com/

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

I was taught to tap the brakes to stop the wheels from spinning before tucking
them away. (spinning tires bulge out a bit, or so I was told) I confess I've
never actually looked down (sometimes I fly a cutlass) to see how long it takes
them to stop on their own.

I'm not sure how tapping the brakes dislodges any snow. There's very little
shoe travel.

Jose

--
(for Email, make the obvious changes in my address)

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

I was taught to tap the brakes to stop the wheels from spinning before tucking
them away. (spinning tires bulge out a bit, or so I was told) I confess I've
never actually looked down (sometimes I fly a cutlass) to see how long it takes
them to stop on their own.

I'm not sure how tapping the brakes dislodges any snow. There's very little
shoe travel.

Jose

--
(for Email, make the obvious changes in my address)

My understanding is that you don't want the gear to freeze in the gear
well, so you leave it down after takeoff to ensure that anything that's
going to freeze will, and then if the gear is going to get stuck it's
stuck down, not up.

--
Ben Jackson

http://www.ben.com/

That's called fixed gear, down and welded.

I spent lots of hours in a Mooney in the northeast, winter and night, never
took special precautions with the gear when on an inch of snow or slush. I
don't remember a runway being sluch covered, but taxiways had been, and I'm
guessing the takeoff run was enough to remove whatever slush might have
accumulated. It may also be people who live in colder areas than Massachusetts
have to do things differently. There's nothing in the approved manual that
says anything about special care (that I remember, at least)

My understanding is that you don't want the gear to freeze in the gear
well, so you leave it down after takeoff to ensure that anything that's
going to freeze will, and then if the gear is going to get stuck it's
stuck down, not up.

--
Ben Jackson

http://www.ben.com/

That's called fixed gear, down and welded.

I spent lots of hours in a Mooney in the northeast, winter and night, never
took special precautions with the gear when on an inch of snow or slush. I
don't remember a runway being sluch covered, but taxiways had been, and I'm
guessing the takeoff run was enough to remove whatever slush might have
accumulated. It may also be people who live in colder areas than Massachusetts
have to do things differently. There's nothing in the approved manual that
says anything about special care (that I remember, at least)

Paul,
Tapping brakes stops the rotation before entering the wheel well. You do
not want them spinning into the gear well.
Leaving them down blows off excess slush and snow as well as freezes any
thin residue that may be left. having it freeze in the wheel well can
make it stick into the well.
Michelle

Paul Tomblin wrote:

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?




--

Michelle P ATP-ASEL, CP-AMEL, and AMT-A&P

"Elisabeth" a Maule M-7-235B (no two are alike)

Volunteer Pilot, Angel Flight Mid-Atlantic

Volunteer Builder, Habitat for Humanity