REFLECTOR: 165 kt Gear Extension Speed

[Richard Riley]

On Berkut we had the beefiest gear doors you've ever seen - 10 plies 
of carbon, full length extruded hinge (ms2001-6) and no gear extend 
speed.  I've opened the gear at 200 kts.  We had an electric speed 
brake, the brake itself was about 10 plies of glass in various 
orientations.  With the brake out, the gear down, cross controlled at 
idle with a fixed pitch prop, I've had an 6000 FPM rate of decent at 
about 180 kts.

Just a datapoint.

At 06:42 PM 12/4/05, you wrote:

>I have been flying a T210 lately and can't say enough about how 
>versatile the 165 Kt gear extension speed is.  Once extended you can 
>run up to Vne.  This 210 does not have any main gear doors, just 
>nose gear doors.
>Yesterday I was flying in from Las Cruces, was day dreaming and 
>suddenly realized I was 15 miles from the airport at 10,500 and 
>needed to be down to 7,500 in  10-12 miles, and slowed down to 120 
>kts when reaching 7,500.   Totally impossible in my V.   I let the 
>gear down,  and without touching anything else was descending at 
>800ft a minute at 150 kts indicated.  I pulled 2 inches of MAP every 
>2 minutes, and made a straight in with no problems, no 
>stress...   All because I could extend the gear at such a high speed.
>
>My V should cruise much faster once I'm back in the air and I'm 
>concerned about being able to slow down or descend rapidly if 
>required, and not abuse the engine by having to pull the throttle 
>from 75% to idle.  The only option in a Velocity cruising above 120 
>kts..  Well you can extend both rudders but thats not nearly enough.
>
>I have considered modifying the speed brake, but not sure what would 
>be needed to insure it wouldn't depart the airframe at 165 kts if 
>extended, much less 200 Kts..
>So I'm now considering emulating the T210.
>
>First by removing most of the main doors:
>     Leave the portion that covers the brake unit attached but beef it up.
>     Leave the short portion that seals off the fuselage when the 
> gear is up, and beef that piece up too.
>     Glass the brake line onto the gear leg, or add a fiberglass 
> channel for it to sit in(not carve out but add a 'U' channel).
>
>Then beef up the nose gear doors and hinge points.      A couple 
>carbon fiber layers on the inside of the doors
>      Reinforce the hinges and fuselage pivot points with carbon fiber
>
>I wonder if the nose gear extension mechanism(rods, sliders, hyd 
>ram, etc) would be up to a 165 kt extension?   Somebody had 
>mentioned they were testing a simplified nose gear door mechanism 
>that used the nose strut to extend the doors, is this working?
>
>I remember reading a post from Scott Baker that the gear extended 
>speed, sans doors, was Vne, like the T210.  Is this correct?
>
>I also remember reading that a couple of folks have tested their 
>planes with and without main doors with no noticable speed loss.  Correct?
>
>Sound sensible?  I really think with the high cruise speeds of the 
>Velocity, being able to extend the gear at around 165 kts, would 
>really enhance its capability and safety.
>
>Scott
>
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