Is the Cozy available with a retractable main gear?
A. No. The nose gear is retractable, and the main gear strut is tear-drop shaped, and with wheel pants, there is very little drag with the fixed main gear. Aircraft Spruce sells an even more streamlined gear fairing as well. A retractable main gear could not possibly be as strong or as light as the fixed gear. It would have to retract somewhere, and the most likely place would be into the strake, which would sacrifice fuel capacity. If you could go 5 or 10 knots faster (and that has yet to be shown to be true at canard racing events) would require you to land more often from fuel (letting down from 10,000 ft, spending 1/2 hr on the ground, and climbing back to 10,000 ft.) is simply not cost effective, since a retractable main gear would increase building cost at least $4,000, would increase insurance cost, would increase maintenance cost, and would increase building time. Retractable main gears are subject to failure (not going down) and forgetfulness (forgetting to lower). In the even
