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It may have been me who raised this issue, when I said that it's possible to have the gear of a 337 fixed at essentially no cost.
I don't have first-hand knowledge, but I've heard others say it. I know that if the gear is down and locked, no malfunction of the system (be it hardware, loss of fluid, whatever) will cause the gear to collapse. A simple fix for newer models with powerpacks ('73 and after) is to pull out the circuit breaker. I don't know if this is strictly legal, but I don't see why it shouldn't, given that the POH clearly indicates that the aircraft can be flown with the gear down and the max speed with gear down is the same (or near) the max speed of the aircraft.
In any event, I'm reasonably sure that an IA would sign a Form 337 wherein the main actuator or some other part of the system is disabled, precluding the gear from moving. At a future time, when you want to sell it, you could offer it as a fixed-gear, or reverse the mod to return it to a retractable.
Ernie
PS. In my old 337D and my current 337G I have had to make flights with the gear down and the differences in airspeed are not significant: like 5 knots.
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