When to put the gear up...

Long answer: Once I'm flying, the gear is useless to me. I want the drag out of the way so I can get as much altitude as quickly as possible. If the engine quits, then it goes on the belly. My main focus is staying alive if the engine goes.

Short answer: Positive rate, gear up.

Greg

It still depends. You may have a ton of runway ahead of you. Better to land it on the gear then to belly it ahead.

It depends. There's no one answer.
 
There is no published data by the manufacturer on such a situation. Anyone who attempts to argue the whole long runway vs. short runway idea in my mind, is volunteering to be a test pilot.

You're a test pilot in any emergency situation ;). How reliable is published data, anyway? For GA, not very. Even if you go off the other end of the runway, you're doing so at a slow speed, and that may be the friendliest terrain in the neighborhood of the runway.

If you're interested, go practice on a long runway. That beats any published data.
 
Mike,

I agree that there is no one answer, I was merely giving my "answer" (or opinion, if you will).

Greg
 
Long answer: Once I'm flying, the gear is useless to me. I want the drag out of the way so I can get as much altitude as quickly as possible. If the engine quits, then it goes on the belly. My main focus is staying alive if the engine goes.

Short answer: Positive rate, gear up.

Greg
But how much drag is created by retracting the gear (doors, retract cycle/motion) over just what is created with the gear dangling down.

IIRC (and it's been a while), in the 172RG the short field t/o procedure was to leave the wheels down until the obstacles were cleared because of additional drag created by the gear-up cycle.

-mini
 
Well, you do get increase interference drag as they retract, so for lower power models (the Piper Arrow comes to mind), you want a positive rate so you have some performance to lose before you would settle back down onto the runway... so Positive Rate.

For training, if you still can land on the runway, no point in breaking a perfectly good SEL if you've got 5,000' remaining, so ... Gear up when out of usable runway.

Hence forth my call out is:

Positive Rate, out of usable, below 109 (or given speed for Vlo), gear up.

Now remember, I'm in the flight training biz, so my students may not fly your airplane some day, or they might. It takes a total of 5 seconds to think about, and it increases their ADM. Whether they use that later is up to the airplane POH, the aircraft owner, and the Ops Manual. Plus a very healthy does of ADM/SRM.
 
I always figured that if the engine came apart and you landed gear up on the remainging runway, or anywhere else for that matter, no one would blame you.

That and the gear hanging out there isn't helping your climb any.
 
But how much drag is created by retracting the gear (doors, retract cycle/motion) over just what is created with the gear dangling down.

IIRC (and it's been a while), in the 172RG the short field t/o procedure was to leave the wheels down until the obstacles were cleared because of additional drag created by the gear-up cycle.

-mini

The cutlass manual never mentions a reason why the gear should be left down for the short field takeoff. It simply states that they should be retracted when the obstacle is cleared.
 
The cutlass manual never mentions a reason why the gear should be left down for the short field takeoff. It simply states that they should be retracted when the obstacle is cleared.
I didn't say I learnded that from the gutless manual.

-mini
 
I didn't say I learnded that from the gutless manual.

-mini

I knew a guy that tucked the 177 gear while doing a low pass... I guess he forgot how har the gear falls before retracting! He said he heard a loud rubbing, and then suddenly the plane nosed in and landed on the belly.


In a cessna retract, I would propose you wait at least untill the gear will clear before pulling them up
 
I knew a guy that tucked the 177 gear while doing a low pass... I guess he forgot how har the gear falls before retracting! He said he heard a loud rubbing, and then suddenly the plane nosed in and landed on the belly.


In a cessna retract, I would propose you wait at least untill the gear will clear before pulling them up

That gave me quite a chuckle.

Damn cessna retract system... Looks like a Thanksgiving turkey for a few seconds.

-mini
 
Well, you do get increase interference drag as they retract, so for lower power models (the Piper Arrow comes to mind), you want a positive rate so you have some performance to lose before you would settle back down onto the runway....

Boy you are not kidding, I almost settled a PA-28R back on the short, hot summer time runway, by doing exactly as you said.

Learning is a change in behavior due to the result of an experience.

I learned...brother did I learn. And I bet I wouldn't have been the first.

"Why don't you want to get rid of the drag as soon as possible?"
Now I get to tell my story to every complex check out/endorsement. :o
 
I do it when there's little chance of landing on the remaining runway. Its not like in the fighter I used to fly where I'm accelerating so fast that I need to get the gear in the wells the second after liftoff.

Ok Mike, you're a stud. We get it we get it! :)

But in a single, by the time I rotated and got a good rate of climb going, I was out of runway anyway so might as well reduce the drag in the climb.
 
Ok Mike, you're a stud. We get it we get it! :)

But in a single, by the time I rotated and got a good rate of climb going, I was out of runway anyway so might as well reduce the drag in the climb.

:D

I was throwing that in there for the multitude of single-engine Cessnas and Pipers that I see who suck the gear in the wells at seemingly 10 AGL and climbing. Man....they're just asking for trouble.
 
Mike,

I agree that there is no one answer, I was merely giving my "answer" (or opinion, if you will).

Greg

But your answer/opinion was one of "gear is useless to you once your flying". I was simply saying that may not necessarily be the case. I just wouldn't want you to box yourself into a square corner and end up on your belly if you may have not needed to. It would suck to have an engine failure on a long runway at 15 AGL, then belly it in and then have to stare at the few thousand feet remaining in front of you as you now *truly* sit at 0 AGL. :cwm27:
 
I would recommend coming up with as many callouts as possible. Everyone knows callouts makes your flying safer, and frankly, makes you sound cool:

"Power set" (Echoed by you for effect)
"Good engine"
"Airspeed alive"
"60 knots"
"Rotate"
"Positive rate"
"NEGATIVE runway remaining"
"Gear up" (Make sure that as you're saying this, you smoothly and smartly make the gear up motion with your hand)
"Gear up and in the wells, lights out"
"Climb power set"

Master these, and you're on your way to becoming a true professional pilot.
 
I would recommend coming up with as many callouts as possible. Everyone knows callouts makes your flying safer, and frankly, makes you sound cool:

"Power set" (Echoed by you for effect)
"Good engine"
"Airspeed alive"
"60 knots"
"Rotate"
"Positive rate"
"NEGATIVE runway remaining"
"Gear up" (Make sure that as you're saying this, you smoothly and smartly make the gear up motion with your hand)
"Gear up and in the wells, lights out"
"Climb power set"

Master these, and you're on your way to becoming a true professional pilot.

lol, nice :D sadly this is probably not too far off the mark for some folks (and certain aviation academies)
 
But how much drag is created by retracting the gear (doors, retract cycle/motion) over just what is created with the gear dangling down.

IIRC (and it's been a while), in the 172RG the short field t/o procedure was to leave the wheels down until the obstacles were cleared because of additional drag created by the gear-up cycle.

-mini

This would be my point... it depends. V-35 is one that comes to mind where the gear in transit causes more drag than just leaving it down. Short field technique is to leave the gear down until clear of obstacles then raise the gear. I've also flown some twins where this was the case... can't remember which ones off hand... I want to say the 310 was one of them. In these situations it is best to leave the gear down in some situations... such as a short field with an obstacle.
The best thing is to actually think about it before applying power- when will you raise the gear in specific situations.
 
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