Yes, more reliable! I doubt if fixed gear with fairings is much lighter than the spring bar, and if fixed is faster, why do so many fast planes use retractable...beginning with the DC3. There must be people out there who have made the change...how about it, was your finished airplane lighter? Faster? In the sailplane world, the wisdom was that a good fixed gear is cleaner than a poorly sealed retractable. A well sealed retractable is always better than fixed - hence, all performance gliders are retractable.
On Mon, Jan 14, 2019, 10:03 AM rdracer53 via KRnet <krnet@list.krnet.org wrote: > > > > > Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone > I agree that it seems like a lot of extra expense to convert from > retractable ear to fixed gear, but I imagine for some folks the joy may be > in just having another project/modification for them to tackle. That may > make it worth the expense.Certainly you work have to get some super > performance increase to make it cost effective.Assuming you got another > 10mph airspeed, that's another 30 miles out of each tank of gas, for those > of us with the plans built 12 gallon header tank, assuming a 4gph burn > rate. If you also assume your fuel economy adds up to around 30mpg, that > would be like getting and extra gallons worth of travel out of each tank of > gas. At 5$/gallon for 100LL you would only have fly 200 tank fulls of gas, > or 600 hours to recover the cost of converting if it had cost you $1000 for > the conversion. So I guess it could eventually pay off, but again I think > for most people who go through with it there is probably a joy in the > building and installation of the new gear, not to mention the finish work > required afterwards.If it were just a matter of reliability as Larry > mentioned, you could just modify your retractable gear with a few bolts to > hold it in the down position and viola, fixed gear.As Larry always says, > your results may vary. > Todd ThelinN825MW > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > I still like my retractable gear. Why are people going to the considerable > effort to replace it with fixed gear? What is the performance before and > after? Has anyone ever really tried to seal up the retractable wheel wells > (I have to some extent) it should make a big performance improvement. > > > +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ > > Done correctly, fixed gear is lighter, faster, and dare I say, more > reliable. > > Larry > *********************************** > _______________________________________________ > Search the KRnet Archives at > https://www.mail-archive.com/krnet@list.krnet.org/. > Please see LIST RULES and KRnet info at http://www.krnet.org/info.html. > see http://list.krnet.org/mailman/listinfo/krnet_list.krnet.org to change > options. > To UNsubscribe from KRnet, send a message to krnet-le...@list.krnet.org > _______________________________________________ Search the KRnet Archives at https://www.mail-archive.com/krnet@list.krnet.org/. Please see LIST RULES and KRnet info at http://www.krnet.org/info.html. see http://list.krnet.org/mailman/listinfo/krnet_list.krnet.org to change options. To UNsubscribe from KRnet, send a message to krnet-le...@list.krnet.org
