Eflite Viper nose gear
 

Hi. i want a more sturdy front retract then the one in my Viper with a thicker pin at least 4-5mm. Can't find any info on this one for 80mm edf's?
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/E-flite-E...id=22035907329
I know some modding is necessary but i wish they would put som specs on ther products.

Why are you only looking at E-Flite brand ? The retract is a standard steerable unit that's available branded and unbranded ...... many being much cheaper than the one you linked to.

But one factor that you will not change - the overall unit size ... if you keep to the E-Flite size retract overall size - the pin will be same ... it is unlikely to be larger diameter. To have larger diameter - you most likely will have to go up in overall retract unit size - and that means heavier and need to cut fuselage to fit.

One way to reduce damage such as bent leg, is to fit a sprung leg to the pin .... a trailing arm leg would look fine on an EDF jet like Viper.

i already have a trailing front gear on my Viper. I flew and that bend too. Now i put the
5mm pin in the trunion instead and will fly later this mont. True i can get other brands
then Eflite and did get another retract with a 4.1mm pin at MotionRC. I’ll try the “homemade” 5mm in the Eflite retract first before the 4.1 from MotionRC.

I'm of the opinion that it is not a good idea to have a stronger pin. My reason is that if you land 'hard' you need something to give so that it doesn't rip the gear out of the plane. Hence the replaceable pins.
As with all trike gear aircraft when you land you should hold the nose up and touch down on the rear 'mains' first. That is why they are called 'mains'. It takes practice but the nose gear does not suffer anywhere near the punishment.
I see so many touching down nose first or all 3 at once and the end result is always bent nose gear.
CG plays an important part when landing trike gear equipped planes. Nose heavy and you are looking for trouble during flare and overloading the nose gear. CG location is just behind the main gear. The plane should rotate easily if you put some pressure down on the tail. If it is hard to push the tail down, then the CG is too far forward and the nose gear will suffer every time.
Anyway I hope you find what you are looking for.

I see your point on better landings /flare/CG. I got trailing link on all three gears now and will try flying later this month. Thank’s to all of you
For your inputs.

Sorry - I must disagree with that. If you have the CoG BEHIND the mains - the model will tip on its tail without you touching it. The mains should be BEHIND the CoG but only just enough to allow the model to sit on all wheels on the ground ... but still allow model to rotate on take-off.

I agree that landing nose wheel first will usually end up with bent nose leg ... but it also happens when landing mains first as the speed drops - the nose bangs down.... usually when landing at minimum airspeed. Landing with a slightly higher airspeed allows a touch down to 'flow' into all wheels on ground after mains touch.

Hmmm OK. I'll stick with what I said. Remembering when it is fuelled up the CG moves forward.

You are right Solentlife, sorry. I was going off the one I just built (Calmato) The CG should normally be just in front of the Mains. I always try to land on the mains first. It just becomes natural after you do it for a while. With my Trojan it is very easy to do. I haven't flown the Calmato yet. It may be harder to get right as I have a very big heavy engine in it and it is quite nose heavy. Trying to decide it I should put some weight in the tail as I can't move the battery packs back any further. I have some sheet lead I can play with.

No worries ....... in fact one of my models sits on its tail when the LiPo is not in it ! But once loaded - the CoG is just infront of mains.

I have screwed some lead onto my tail on the Calmato and you can just make it sit on the tail if you push it down now. When it is full of fuel it will be nose heavy according to their CG position so I reckon I have it just right. Not pretty but you can't see it when it is sitting on its' wheels. :)

As an old Fuel Flyer (I still have Glow and Gasoline today ....) I always balanced mine at 1/2tank so on take-off I was 'safe' and on landing I had a touch more flare capability ! but main flight was on CoG.

Larger models I balanced empty as the tank actually did not make such a huge difference in such models.

All going well I will give it a try this Saturday. :)