Penalty 15 - Gear Down after FL050

[EHM-2029 Sotiris]

Hello fellow flyers,

just a quick one: Penalty 15 is when one has ldg gear extended after climbing over FL050.
What happens in the case of high latitude airports?
Example: MMMX Mexico City's Airport for example rests gracefully 7'340 ft AMSL.

So when taking off and for the few feet of initial climb prior to retraction I would be climbing over and well above FL050. What would happen? Would I get a penalty for operating from high airports or would it not register and I'd be safe?

[EHM-1651 Christian]

No, I'm making a test flight out of MMMX now and I did not get a penalty for landing gear deplyed above FL050 when taking off from there.

[EHM-2089 Vincent]

Hi,

As far as I know I have never received that penalty even after taking from airports where altitude showed as 2500 ft or more. I haven't checked it again before I write but based on my previous flight, what I generally go is, the moment I get a positive rate of ascend and confident that the plane is going to be airborne, I will immediately take up the gear.

Its kind of a habit that the gear comes in immediately on take off. For this, get to the spot view once you reach Vr. (Speed Rotate). You can have a good look at the plane lifting up and immediately press the G key. This also helps to reduce the drag and help in the faster climb (reduced drag).

Hope this helps.