[gkey]

This is what I can remember from my PTR's: Depending on where you are in your flight path (anywhere between departure and arrival), as well as what altitude you have, you would like to (1) keep the gear down, or (2) keep them UP if they are already up, and (3) after deciding on your landing strip (or street or field) get them down when you still have some speed that can be sacrificed (because you WILL loose 10-15 kts) and you know you're going to make it to your landing area. Don't wait too long though - I find the slower you move (single engine operation) the bigger the impact will be on your loss of airspeed. The more altitude you have, the better for you. You could point the nose down to make up for lowering the gear. It also helps to make a mental note of exactly how long it takes your particular bird to extend its gear and lock in down position. In mine it takes just over 20 seconds.

If I had to choose one engine to carry me through to safe landing, I would choose the rear one. I found that if only the rear engine is driving, the plane behaves like a pregnant 210 but still very much flyable, but if the front one is driving it behaves like a hopelessly overloaded 182 and can barely keep altitude, let along climb even 50 fpm. Don't think you will be able to sustain flight - start looking for a parking spot.

Thank you for this posting - it reminded me I have not done this procedure in over a year!