retractable landing gear

[terrykohler]

Stefan:
Take a good look at something that's already engineered and has probably the coolest looking retractable gear in all of aviation - the Questair Venture
http://www.airbum.com/pireps/PirepQuestairVenture.html
Aluminum construction. Cruise speed near 240 kts (One of these raced at Reno and clocked over 325 kts, with a higher output engine). Solid instrument platform, and a VERY unique shape (I think Van designed the RV gear fairings by studying this aircraft). If you come to Airventure, you will likely see a few of these on the flightline.
Terry, CFI
RV-9A N323TP

[Snowflake]

If anyone thinks about following the Questair design, make sure you do a fair bit of research... The original gear design was not inherently stable and could very quickly launch a pilot into the weeds. It was redesigned and the later models were extremely stable, like Cessna 150 stable, or so i've read. And it's definitely a neat design. Not sure where you could bring the gear into the fuselage on an RV though...

[flyboy1963]

...I think I recently saw the solution to the Rv-actable!

the Swift Fury kit!

[rpellicciotti]

Originally Posted by stefan87

Hello to all

I am Stefan from Austria.

I would be interested if anyone of you has already thought about an RV with a retractable landing gear to equip or modify it.

Please write me your thoughts and experiences.

Or maybe you know someone who had also had such thoughts and still has.

I thank you with in advance for the many answers here in the forum.

Fine Greetings from Austria to America.

with friendly greetings

Stefan

There is no denying that a retractable RV has coolness:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d506a6Id5CY

[Birkelbach]

http://tinyurl.com/2bqetfb

[rzbill]

While I am really glad that Dennis Polen ignored the naysayers when he built his incredible steed, the times have changed. There are plenty of choices today for retrac birds available to kit build or scratch build. However, if nothing else suits your fancy, then go ahead and live the real roots of experimental aviation and modify to your hearts desire.

I, for one, will be quite relieved to not have to worry about the gear anymore (renting an Arrow while building). You know the old adage.. "There are retract pilots that have and retract pilots that will" I want to get my RV done before I DO (land gear up that is).

[Danny7]

Originally Posted by Birkelbach

http://tinyurl.com/2bqetfb

ouch! +1

[WayneWagner]

I am a little late in this thread, but anyone thinking about a retractable gear RV may want to take a look first at the Furio RG. I saw the kit at Oshkosh last year. It's basically a carbon fiber kit of the Falco that is made in New Zealand...I think it is something like 16 or 19 basic carbon fiber pieces and designed for the IO-390. Even their specs, though, didn't show much of an improvement over an RV-7 in performance, but it sure did look nice...for a lot more money.

[breister]

Originally Posted by elippse

It's called a Lancair!

Mine is, but Glasair is still going strong and Ravin is selling a few

Originally Posted by nucleus

Falco is wood

You are correct! Forgot about them.