Plans: 1. Finish landing gear assembly. Status: About half completed. Rather than joining the legs to the fuselage I decided it would be better to paint the components first. I also needed to get some parts fabricated and replaced.
The bungee cables that wrap around the legs and axel will chafe on the bottom of the gear. To remedy this End Caps need to be fabricated. Strangely this is mentioned in the instruction video but not provided for in the parts kit or plans. It was a simple matter to make a couple of caps but it necessitates a trip to Aircraft Spruce for some sheet stock.
I also need to lengthen the axel at least 3 inches. Having added brake drums I lost three inches of axel normally taken by the bungees. Robert mentioned that I could just narrow the spread of the legs by up to 2.5 inches to save the cost of an axel. I elected to keep the spread of the original design. I prefer to have a little wider wheel base rather than narrower legs. It should give me more stability against ground spins.
Regarding the landing gear tangs. Here is another deviation from the plans. The plans call out using eye bolts to rig using 1/8 inch cable. The kit however provided steel tangs and 3/16 cable. This is an improvement to strengthen the legs. In reading Sam Buchannan’s log he mentions that this it done to support a heaver engine. Robert must have made this change standard now.
