Con-Pilot said:
One piece of advice, advice that will save your friend's life and the lives of his passengers.
GET GOOD PROPER TRAINING! Find the best MU-2 school in the world and go to it and keep going to it for as long as he owns the the airplane.
The MU-2 is a killer of inexperienced pilots, actually it does a pretty good job of killing experienced pilots as well.
I have nearly 800 hours in MU-2s and count myself lucky. However, I did attend Flight Safety for initial and recurrency training.
Now, about gear retraction, yes the gear doors opening will add drag, however, using the wheel (remember the MU-2 has spoilers only for roll) to keep the wings level will add much more drag. Use rudder and aileron trim to keep the wings level.
It has been a long time, but I do believe that single engine climb speed is around 150kts. Now the MU-2 will come off the runway at around 110 kts. So if one loses an engine just after takeoff you will need to accelerate at least 40kts to 150 before you can start a climb. If you do not have the space to accelerate or you are coming off a hot/high airport,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,well, good luck.
My best advice is to get rid of the blasted thing.
Even though this post was some time ago I feel the need to respond to this poster total ignorance of the aircraft he says he has over 800 hours in. My first thought on reading his remark is that he must have been asleep for the whole 800 hours and his passengers are very lucky to have survived his inept knowledge and attitude.
It is no wonder that so many pilots like this one have been killed by the myths and lack of standardized training for this very unique aircraft. No need to go into an total defense of his misleading statements and the SFAR will either education such idiots or weed them out before they kill someone.
I will say however that the MU2 climbs very well on one engine flaps 20 and 125 knots. The 151 knot speed this poster mentions is clean and like a jet you do not go to flaps 0 until clear of terrain and ready for en route climb.