In article , Michael wrote:
That's not what he's talking about. The risk we're concerned with is
not gear-up landing (which is, for all practical purposes, a financial
rather than a life-and-lib risk) but loss of control in IMC. Having
the gear hanging out means it takes that much longer to overspeed the
airplane, giving the pilot that much more time to recover from the
unusual attitude.

My strategy for handling a vacuum failure in the Bonanza was to slow
down, get the gear out, and put some flaps down. The trouble with the
one we had is that it would wag its tail quite a bit in any turbulence,
which would make flying without the attitude gyro and DG more
challenging than it should be. However, slowing the plane down and
putting the gear out and some flaps made it as docile as a C172, and
extremely draggy.

Of course, if you don't realise you've got a gyro failure until you are
actually in the unusual attitude and rapidly picking up speed, things
are going to be much tougher.

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"