Flap retraction on Arrow?
I fly an Arrow II, fitted with a ‘gear unsafe’ mechanism which, basically, cues the pilot with a warning horn and light when the gear is retracted with flap settings above 10°.
On the Arrow, a max performance take-off is achieved with 25° flap and it is here that my query arises. On short-field operations I prefer to leave the gear down until a safe height is reached and retract flap to the 10° position before pulling the gear up. My reasoning is that the aircraft shouldn’t be deliberately flown with a warning horn (which is identical to the stall warning) and light blaring at such a critical phase of flight.
On a recent annual check-ride with an instructor, I was ticked off for not getting the gear up immediately after take-off. He insisted that flying with the warnings was more acceptable than the extra drag caused by the dangling gear. (My post-flight counter argument that less powerful fixed-gear Cherokees manage this quite well fell on deaf ears.)
Any opinions?
HP