The November issue of the UK LAA's Light Aviation magazine includes a cover article and flight test review of a 1940s Czech Mráz M.1 Sokol light plane in which author and LAA Chief Engineer Francis Donaldson comments on the type's pleasant and easy to use manual retractable landing gear. The gear is cranked up and down via a handle on a vertical shaft between the seats and includes no up or down locks, just over-center mechanisms, with mechanical indicators in the wings. A contemporary 1946 FLIGHT magazine article (attached) also comments on the easy manual action of the gear. So here's my question... Can anyone provide any more information (photos, diagrams, cutaway drawings, etc.) of the manual retraction mechanism of the Mráz M.1 Sokol? I think this would be very interesting to apply to other types, especially amphibians. Cheers, Matthew
