Craig Berland wrote:

...The nice thing about it is....the (Lancair IV) gear box will stay
cleaner, but I don't like the fact that there will be a big opening where
the
gears legs were when down.

Craig,
On my aircraft, there is an approximately round hole about 2" in diameter
remaining when the gear is retracted and the doors closed behind them. This
does allow some amount of air to flow through the gearbox, but this "system"
has worked well for many years/many flying aircraft. If you have a large
open area, you might be able to rework the front of the gear doors and their
mating fuselage areas to reduce the size. I'd be happy to send pictures of
mine if this would help, but most builders have come up with almost the same
solution, so it might be easier to look at one closer to home? In any case,
don't make the opening in the fuselage/doors too close a fit. The gear legs
do move around a bit when you touch down, and if you don't allow enough
(what is enough???) clearance, it will eventually crack--probably the
fuselage area just forward of the gear leg when extended, but I'm not sure
where the gear leg would hit first during a hard landing. Good luck and let
me know if you need the pix.

Bob Pastusek