Scudrunners

There are two types of pilots:

Those that push (exceed) the gear extension speed,
and those that don't.

You can probably guess which camp I am in.

In my experience, it's not the gear, it's the gear
doors which suffer from high speed extension.

The loads are exponential with respect to speed,
and those doors are like sails on sailboats - they
fill up with air, and it's really hard on them.  It's
not unusual to see cracking around the mount
points.

Free advice:

Lower your gear 10k BELOW the max extension
speed.  It's a huge difference to 10k ABOVE the
max extension speed, in terms of the load on
the gear doors, and the maintenance.

But some pilots give a shit about breaking
hardware, and some (many, majority?) don't.

That's why those of us that give a shit about
hardware can fly single-engine across water.

[img width=500 height=375][/img]

I find 'those that give a shit about hardware' are in the minority. Amongst other professionals, I've noticed people look at me funny when I talk about doing things to go easy on the equipment. The pervasive attitude seems to be that airplanes are a tool for a job akin to a dump truck.

I find it incredible that so many pilots are ignorant of the importance of being careful in how they handle the airplane and its engines /props.

They are proof positive that a low IQ is not a barrier to being a pilot.

Chuck,


its simple..


Most pilots these days are simply "pilots".... They dont ever have to worry about paying maintenance  bills..


Colonel,


Whats the longest leg you have done over water?

Maintenance bills are important for sure for the owner.

However when pilots abuse / break equipment they endanger the lives of others, they obviously don't have the intelligence to realize they are endangering their own lives but that is the Darwin factor at its best.