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Since my goal is to land with the gear down I have never trained to wait on any kind of final approach to drop the gear. I will identify a point in the approach TO the airport vicinity where I want the gear down - thats never as late as in the pattern. being early gives me plenty of time to run 3-4 "GUMPS" before final. Also if I am going to be losing significant altitude as you seemed to be concerned about, the gear does add a bit of drag for decent. Great thing about the Skymaster is it flys very well with the gear down so I could never see a reason to delay gear down. IFR instructors will probably train to drop gear at FAF - thats their training - Ive been picking a more distant gear down point now for 9 years and havent come close to a gear up so it works for me. If your staying in the pattern for training it will be something you need to work thru with your instructor. You might compromise by getting the gear down early and then coming to agreement where you will be running "GUMPS" - gear down checks. Hope the weather is good your way for this training. I took delivery of mine December 1998 and remember some cold trips to the airport.
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