Chris Prata wrote: >> Why not just use a manual lever and linkage? That way you could move it as fast or slow as u want.<<
It's possible, but real estate and the lack of three hands was my logic. If you put it on the floor where you can reach it with tight shoulder belts, you've got to dodge the seat, aileron cables, and will probably sacrifice at least three inches for your fist to reach and operate the handle...which translates directly into three wasted inches in the cockpit, or a wider airplane. And as folks with the original retract gear discovered, having to pull or push a lever while the other hand is on the control stick can lead to some "pilot induced oscillations". Couple that with a go-around or recovering from a touchdown that's gone bad. In that case you need to go full throttle, pull the flaps up slooowly, kill carb heat, and "fly the plane". With electric flaps I flip a switch after full throttle and the flaps take care of themselves while I do more important things, taking about 5 seconds to retract, which is about as slow as I'd care for them to retract. Mark Langford ML at N56ML.com http://www.n56ml.com
