On Tue, 16 Mar 2004 00:56:30 GMT, "G.R. Patterson III"
wrote:



Corky Scott wrote:

I can see how it
might make for the possibility of retracting the gear instead of the
flaps if you have retractible gear and the levers are both located
near each other, but fixed gear? What could be the harm?

To quote various CFIs I encountered when I flew Cessnas, "because there's too
much risk of hitting the gear up by mistake when you upgrade to higher
performance aircraft". A poster rec.aviation.something last year claimed that
there's even an examiner out there who will fail you if you raise the flaps in
a 172 while still on the runway.

I agree with you, however. I feel you should fly the plane you're in at the
moment; not one that you might be able to buy sometime in future.

George Patterson
Battle, n; A method of untying with the teeth a political knot that would
not yield to the tongue.

Well that makes sense, although failing someone for innocently
following the procedures he was taught seems overly harsh.

A friend of mine just acquired a V tailed Bonanza, and while sitting
in the cockpit the other day I noticed that both the flaps and gear
handles are not far from each other, and while the handles are
slightly differently shaped, they are both the same color and are at
the same height. So one is as easy to grab as the other. In
addition, this Bonanza has the dual yokes option, and in this case it
means a cross bar that blocks the lower part of the instrument panel
from sight. So it would pay to be very careful about grabbing the
gear or flap handles in this airplane.

I chose to put the flap handle of my homebuilt on the ceiling, so that
when the flaps are down, so is the handle. The gear is fixed so
raising the flaps upon touchdown will become a normal part of landing.

Corky Scott