<DIV>I never claimed to be the best pilot out there, but in the five or six years I have been flying pattern with an LA-1, PA-2, an SL-1, a Bridi Great Escape, Bridi XLT, a 60 sized Conquest VII, Saphir II, and an Eppicure II, all with retracts! I have had to remove and straighten the struts exactly twice and both times have been on hard dead stick landings while practicing! Either I am using some exceptionally tough metal only found in the great state of Ohio, or the whole retract maintenance issue is overblown. I am not arguing the fact that some people can and do have problems with bent struts, but other than a little extra time to make sure they are set up to rotate lock and clear properly I have NOT experienced much failure with them, and NEVER once at a contest. I've had headers, couplers, servos, engine, and thumbs fail at contests, but (knock on wood) never my retracts. In fact, I have seen many more sets of fixed gear
get sheared off at contests than retracts fail. Perhaps I just don't get out enough.<BR><BR><B><I>Nik Middleton <middletn@spinmail.com></I></B> wrote:
<BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid; WIDTH: 100%">While it's true that at comps the plane's carried out, I spend far more time<BR>at the practice field. I find it helpful not to have to ask someone to<BR>carry it for me. Still it's only a slight bonus. However I do find fixed<BR>gear better at handling slightly longer grass. I don't recall having to<BR>straiten my fixed gear, but I know that with retracts I had to check them<BR>every few flights. Still miss putting the gear up though, nothing like a<BR>slow low pass with gear up.<BR><BR>rgds<BR><BR><BR>-----Original Message-----<BR>From: discussion-request@nsrca.org<BR>[mailto:discussion-request@nsrca.org]On Behalf Of GeorgeF.<BR>Sent: Friday, July 18, 2003 1:44 PM<BR>To: discussion@nsrca.org<BR>Subject: Re: fixed gear vs. retracts<BR><BR><BR>At 05:13 PM 7/17/2003 -0400, you wrote:<BR>>Anthony,<BR>><BR>>"It is true I don't taxi about with them---" I hope Margaretta (sp
OK?)<BR>>is reading the message. That's why Anthony doesn't have to taxi!!!!<BR><BR><BR>A lot of fields would rather have you carry your planes to the flight line<BR>for saftey. I've yet to attend a pattern contest where I had seen pilots<BR>taxi out to the runway.<BR><BR>Sounds like the "taxi" issue is more like an excuse rather than improving<BR>flying skills.... Kinda like todays schools, "dumb down" the test so<BR>everyone wins?<BR><BR>George<BR><BR>=====================================<BR># To be removed from this list, send a message to<BR># discussion-request@nsrca.org<BR># and put leave discussion on the first line of the body.<BR>#<BR><BR>=====================================<BR># To be removed from this list, send a message to <BR># discussion-request@nsrca.org<BR># and put leave discussion on the first line of the body.<BR>#<BR></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV>