ORIGINAL: Deadstik
The Kirkland A-6 Intruder was originally designed in 1969 with retracts. The same is true for Jim Martin's Banshee. I kit both and have the original plans. As several of the other folks have already said, you put them in and then if you want to fly SPA, just cover over the retract wells and don't hit the switch. It is certainly an area which should be explored a bit more. It seems the VRCS folks don't have a problem with retracts if they are shown on the plans. (Such as the A6 and the Banshee) Perhaps this season can bring about further discussion on modifying some of these positions.
Dan
Carolina Custom Aircraft
---------------
I saw "Jersey Jim Martin" fly his Banshee in the very early Seventies. The wail of that Webra .61 still sings in my mind and makes the hair stand up on my arms. I "think" I saw the demo flight at the Lakehurst N.A.S. What an exhibition he put on. What a showman.
His greatest maneuver (to me) were those long knife-edge passes with the wingtip only a couple of feet off of the runway. He gilded the lily by making it a serrated knife-edge to boot, by wiggling the tail of the model vertically. I had never seen any kind of knife-edge performed before that day, much less serrated knife-edge. I was wound up for a couple of weeks after that exhibition. I'm still trying to figure out how he stuffed all of the necessary gear inside of that tiny airplane.