Durable landing gear for foamie?

[yamahafunkplayer]

Hi All... I am patching up my Airfield Hellcat (43"/1100mm WS ). She's been crashed so many times, but still wants to fly...but she needs feet.

THe original gear was wire with a plastic snap-in piece built into the bottom of the wing to hold it. didn't last long, as this was my 2nd plane.

My friend crashed his dynam c-47 and i put the wheels on my hellcat, but then prop clearance was a factor. with 11in prop, prop hits the ground when the tail rises. with 10 in prop, she flies too sluggishly for my liking.

So, after giving up and hanging her in the garage for 6 months, i decided to give her another go at a flying life... i took her down and did a lot of work to patch up the holes and mount a new motor, and some other mods.... but she still needs landing gear.

any ideas on building a sturdy gear for her? something that will last more than a couple flights? and tracks straight? (she has a steerable tailwheel)

-Gary

[CHELLIE]

I know what your talking about Gary I had the same problem finding landing gear for foam planes that are Durable, the wire landing gear always bends and does not track right, and the plastic landing gear break after a few landings, so I had to make my own custom landing gear from aluminum stock and they work great I make them for profile and full body Planes, the aluminum is about 1/8" thick by 1/2" or 3/4" Wide or so its not to heavy but is very strong, My Son and myself are going to be makeing light weight but strong landing gear for foam planes, and selling them on EBay, what dimentions do you need on your landing gear, top width at fuselage, bottom width, and lenght from fuselage to ground, I may be able to fabricate a one piece aluminum landing gear for you, we are also makeing 2 piece custom landing gear for profile Foam Planes, the landing gear i have made for my planes work Perfect Take care, Chellie




My custom profile landing gear in the pic is 3/4" wide, i also make them 1/2" wide for smaller profile foam planes, i use thin plywood and spacers to mount the landing gear to the foam with, it makes the foam very strong at the landing gear mounting area.

[road king 97]

Or you can order another set http://www.nitroplanes.com/93a806-12...nggearset.html

[yamahafunkplayer]

Originally Posted by road king 97

Or you can order another set http://www.nitroplanes.com/93a806-12...nggearset.html

thanks road king, for your advice.

i thought of ordering the replacements, but they didn't track very good, so that's why i decided not to do it. I may head to hobbytown and see what they have there that may work....

-G

[yamahafunkplayer]

Originally Posted by CHELLIE

I know what your talking about Gary I had the same problem finding landing gear for foam planes that are Durable, the wire landing gear always bends and does not track right, and the plastic landing gear break after a few landings, so I had to make my own custom landing gear from aluminum stock and they work great

thanks, Chellie, for the offer. I may have to take you up on that. let me see if there's an off-the-shelf option first, then I will let you know...

then again, i may just get creative. (hellcat on floats )

just kidding...

-gary

[road king 97]

Hey Gary If you Twist the gear so the wheels are toed in a little, it will fix your tracking problem . It also helps with a tail dragger to slowly feed the power to the motor ,it creates less tork that way. joe

[road king 97]

Originally Posted by yamahafunkplayer

Hi All... I am patching up my Airfield Hellcat (43"/1100mm WS ). She's been crashed so many times, but still wants to fly...but she needs feet.

THe original gear was wire with a plastic snap-in piece built into the bottom of the wing to hold it. didn't last long, as this was my 2nd plane.

My friend crashed his dynam c-47 and i put the wheels on my hellcat, but then prop clearance was a factor. with 11in prop, prop hits the ground when the tail rises. with 10 in prop, she flies too sluggishly for my liking.

So, after giving up and hanging her in the garage for 6 months, i decided to give her another go at a flying life... i took her down and did a lot of work to patch up the holes and mount a new motor, and some other mods.... but she still needs landing gear.

any ideas on building a sturdy gear for her? something that will last more than a couple flights? and tracks straight? (she has a steerable tailwheel)

-Gary

I go to my local hobby shop and look in the replacement landing gear section and most times i can find a gear that i can either do a little bending to make it work or i buy wire and make my own . I have a old steel rc wire bender but i can bend it by clamping in my vice too.Most of the replacement landing gear was under 6 dollars and a couple were under 2 bucks and both were with foam wheels. joe

[CNY_Dave]

Some draggers like toe-in, some like toe-out, some like neither.

Tried all 3 on my bipe off pavement, out worked much better.

[road king 97]

Originally Posted by CNY_Dave

Some draggers like toe-in, some like toe-out, some like neither.

Tried all 3 on my bipe off pavement, out worked much better.

I think over 100 tail dragger kits i have built all sad to toe in the wheels for better tracking . I dont know about your bibe tho. http://www.rmfm.org/ground_loop.htm

[firemanbill]

This might work for you. Real tough yet light weight

http://www.millenniumrc.com/X-Gear.html

[road king 97]

Originally Posted by firemanbill

This might work for you. Real tough yet light weight

http://www.millenniumrc.com/X-Gear.html

I have not bought a set of those yet Bill but they look nice. CNY DAVE now you know why i build these now, NO LANDING GEAR and plenty of runway on a big lake.lol joe

[firemanbill]

Wow! that is gorgeous!

[solentlife]

Originally Posted by road king 97

I think over 100 tail dragger kits i have built all sad to toe in the wheels for better tracking . I dont know about your bibe tho. http://www.rmfm.org/ground_loop.htm

Considering that L/G usually gets bent / deformed / twisted on most landings ... this Toe-in / Toe-out argument leaves me wondering if I'm so bad at landings !! But then again I watch others and know that I am not !

Given that often I have to 'tweak' my wheels straight - I am danged if I can remember In or Out !! I just make them straight as I can.

Nigel

[solentlife]

As promised - the Nigel Guide to DIY Landing Gear :

First you need suitable 2mm or similar rod ... I use Hobby Kings Control Rod packs, about 30cm long and 2mm diam. A pack of 10 is peanuts.

2 rods ready to start ...



We need to decide IN or OUT working gear ie Spitfires and ME109's have outward retracting gear ... Hurricanes, P51's have inward ...

Measure up - install blocks into wings. I use 10mm sq block epoxied into slots .. then fill any gaps with Hot Glue ... this speeds things up.

Drill vertical pin hole that keeps Leg at angle required.

Now we place BOTH rods in vice and bend the end short pin part - do not use threaded end - that will be discarded.



Then we measure leg height from axle centre of wheel to block desired ... and bend BOTH together to get both legs same.



Then we bend the axle part of the leg to suit wheel, cut of extra leaving a reasonable amount so we can cut a thread ...



Finally we have l legs with standard M3 nuts to retain the wheels ... nice and neat.



We tweak the ends to get correct angles of sit ... self-tappers into blocks to hold the legs in place ..



I would use clamp plates - but have run out - so wide head tappers do the job.

Here's finished job ...



This is a scratchbuild Me109 .. based on a free plan and a wing left over from a Lanyu RTF Me109 I had ... I married the two and bingo !

Hope the above is useful ... it's simple to do, means you can replace all those crap LG legs we see on kits etc. I made front leg for my Cessna similar way.

Nigel

[road king 97]

I own a old heavy cast iron wire bender that i bought 30 years ago and have never wore it out. Today they sell plastic ones but they dont look like they are made to last very long. A flying friend is scratch building a plane now and is using my old heavy wire bender but iam missing it . Nice gear Nigel

[road king 97]

Originally Posted by CNY_Dave

Some draggers like toe-in, some like toe-out, some like neither.

Tried all 3 on my bipe off pavement, out worked much better.

I have another Ivan plans builder comming from the UK to seff this Year .He has a Ivans twin otter also ( Scott ) . He plans on stopping in chicago and visit me then see the US . I have to work.

[CNY_Dave]

There's a lot of 'geometry' going on, and it varies depending on what angle the plane is at when landing/taking-off, and what will work better for a skid vs a wheel (I had a wheel), and if you are in a high-traction vs a low-traction environment.

I know kits tend to say 'in' a little, but it's like jetting a motorcycle carb, the only way to know what works best for a given rider on a given bike on a given terrain at a given altitude is to verify all points 'away' from the current point (jetting, wheel-angle, etc) is worse.

Also, could be too much toe or variation in the amount of toe is not a big deal with toe-in, but can have terrible effects with toe-out (cars are like this).

I have seen excellent, and correct, geometrical arguments conclusively proving in is better, and have seen the same for out. My advice is if the recc method yields poor results, the heck with it, try something different.

My bipe was approx 5 lbs, very prone to ground loops on landing, low rudder effectiveness, and flying off pavement with very sticky tires. It could be if some or all of those could be 'corrected' in would be better than out, but some of that's just the way a Fokker D-VII is.

[yamahafunkplayer]

thanks for the tips. by the way, awesome seaplane! very impressive. i want to build a multi-engine plane someday. too bad im so allergic to CA. i was building from plans a "Forerunner" pylon racer.

[road king 97]

Originally Posted by yamahafunkplayer

thanks for the tips. by the way, awesome seaplane! very impressive. i want to build a multi-engine plane someday. too bad im so allergic to CA. i was building from plans a "Forerunner" pylon racer.

Thanks Funkplayer ,I have good news for you if you want to build .I havent used CA in 10 years ,i use tightbond 2 for my seaplane and all my builds . I use epoxy on landing gear blocks and motor mounts/wing joints but every thing else is tightbond wood glue. Ca does not sand well and when tightbond glue dries its lighter that ca. Tightbond glue does not get brittle and crack either like ca does. If you ever need any plane plans i probly have over 3000 free plans to choose from in a download. Just pm me any time.Good luck with those wheels they can be a pain in the ars. joe

[subzJC]

+1 on Chellies landing gear.
I do the same thing and they are stout.
Instead of ply I use countertop laminate between the
gear and the fuse to help strengthen the fuse and it
also helps to cushion a less than greasy landing.
This way you can customize the height and width to your needs.
Good Luck!

[rcmad]

I've got some nice looking dubro ones, but they don't come in many sizes

[yamahafunkplayer]

thanks, road king... going to try the wood glue. even having bad reactions to loctite super glue (it's more or less CA too) so this is good news. may start building a stick from scratch for the next one. thanks for the links to the plans too!

as for landing gear.. i'm going to hot glue a small wood block under the fuse (cutting out some foam to make it flush) and screw on the landing gear from my otherwise destroyed eflite sukhoi. --let you know how it works...

[road king 97]

Originally Posted by yamahafunkplayer

thanks, road king... going to try the wood glue. even having bad reactions to loctite super glue (it's more or less CA too) so this is good news. may start building a stick from scratch for the next one. thanks for the links to the plans too!

as for landing gear.. i'm going to hot glue a small wood block under the fuse (cutting out some foam to make it flush) and screw on the landing gear from my otherwise destroyed eflite sukhoi. --let you know how it works...

I would sand a flat spot and then epoxy the ply plate on it. If you ever looking for any plan just pm me i most likly have it or know where to get one. lol joe

[yamahafunkplayer]

i made a flat spot and hot glued some balsa in place, used a couple wood screws to hold on alum landing gear from my crash eflite-su26. held up pretty well, took 2 rough landings and needs re-glued, but otherwise is working ok.

[solentlife]

I have come around to making my own L/G .... I use control rod 2mm black metal .... it's more stiff than piano wire ....

I buy bundles of 10 from Hobby King ... cheap and cheerful.

This way I can make to my own length .. I can thread the end with tap / die set to put a nut to hold wheel ... I can bind together to make V strut L/G using carpet thread and CA ...

How durable ? What about a 60 Glow powered biplane - is that big enough ?

For mounting into wing / fuselage ......... a 6mm ply plate is more than enough for most models .. a groove along for wire to sit in, a hole for vertical short part to engage to keep wire in position. The ply plate epoxied into wing. How to hold wire to plate ? I use self-tapper screws with the heads fitted with wider washers ... no U clips needed.

The beauty of this - you can replace / make to suit what you want ... and 2mm stock fits many of the stock wheel axle holes ... or the plastic stoppers used.


Nigel