Lancair Mako looks for a bite of the certified market B Y D AV E H I R S C H M A N | P H O TO G R A P H Y B Y M I K E F I Z E R THE LANCAIR MAKO CLIMBS SWIFTLY AFTER TAKEOFF, and the climb gets even swifter when the nosewheel retracts-on its own. The shift happens without any pilot input near pattern altitude just after raising the flaps, and airspeed rises to 130 KIAS from 110 in a shallow climb. "The change in flap setting was the last piece of information the gear logic had to have before retracting the nosewheel," said Conrad Huffstutler, Lancair's youthful and engineering-minded president, who invented the Mako's unusual gear system. He's so confident in the technology that this Mako doesn't even have a traditional landing gear lever. www.aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 55http://www.aopa.org/pilot