Doug, that rule means that there is no deduction in the flight realism score if there are no retracts. It does not prevent you from using retracts.
Chuck

Just the difference between a technical achievement and a no-brainer purchase.

Would they be considered scoreable as a scale option on a profile?

(Clip)

Yes.  Why not?

However, for some profiles scale ships, retracts might not be too practical.

Keith

Everyone who pointed out that the absence of retracts not deducting from the score is spot on, but of course they can be used as an optional score.  As to them ever becoming mandatory?  Over my dead body.
Okay, maybe not THAT severe, but you get the picture, it's just not going to happen with the rules "clean up" under way.

I think it should be brought up that the CL scale rules provide for flight points to operate a retracting gear (on those airplanes where the full size aircraft had a retract gear).  This is an option for flight points that applies to all of the CL scale events: Profile Scale, Sport Scale, Fun Scale, Team Scale, and Designer Scale.  In those rules, there is a penalty for not retracting the gear if the full scale aircraft had a retracting gear.

"Any model which flies with wheels down while the prototype actually featured a retractable landing gear will have the score reduced except Profile Scale models."  (For FAI scale, the penalty is automatic and significant.)

At least the rules makers got it partly right by exempting Profile models from the automatic reduction.  Fun Scale is recognized basically as an introductory event for scale.  In essence, Sport Scale can also be considered as an introductory event.  It seems to me that these two events should also be exempted from the required non-retract gear point deduction just as for Profile Scale.   For the record, I intend to submit a change proposal during the next rules change cycle starting in January to exempt Sport and Fun Scale events from the automatic reduction.    With the current rules for these "introductory events", the choice of a model to build is really dictated or at least discouraged by the current rule to not build a model of a full scale aircraft with retracts.  I do not think that should apply to these events.  Just my opinion.