Raise and lower the landing gear

Fold an aeroplane's wheels away after take-off so they stop costing speed, and swing them back out before you land.

You need this on every aeroplane flight: wheels left down drag the whole way, and wheels left up mean landing on the fuselage.

• The ship carries at least one LG-1 Landing Gear.
• For the stage route, you are still in the hangar.

Steps

1. Tap a wheel in flight. Its part sheet opens with one action on it: Gear up while the wheel is out, Gear down while it is folded.
2. Tap Gear up. The strut swings back into its housing over two and a half seconds, and the toast reads the part's name followed by "up".
3. Do the same for every other wheel. Each landing gear is its own part and answers only its own sheet.
4. Before landing, tap each wheel again and choose Gear down. Give them the same two and a half seconds to lock out before the ground arrives.

Doing it from the staging list instead

1. In the hangar, tap Stages.
2. Pick the stage in the first column, or the + tile under them for a stage of its own.
3. Select a wheel on the ship, pick Gear up at the foot of the second column, and tap the + tile. Repeat for every wheel, into the same stage, so one press of STAGE raises them all.
4. Put Gear down for every wheel in a later stage the same way, for the landing.

Autobrake

The same sheet carries the Autobrake switch, on by default. Left on, the wheels brake whenever the throttle is at zero and roll free as soon as it opens. Switch it off on a wheel only if you mean to roll with the power off, and remember that wheel then holds nothing on a slope.

What you should see

The wheel folds flat against the hull and the aeroplane picks up speed: folded, the gear meets no air at all. Lowered, the struts stand out from the hull with the wheels at their ends, ready to take the weight. The aeroplane in Flying an aeroplane tops out at 111 m/s with its gear up and 87 m/s with it down.