| Image Comments |
| SteveM | 27-Oct-08 00:57 |
| Close up view from the rear of the landing gear wire. There was little to prevent the wires from rotating, maybe I was supposed to put the wires on the other side of the spar. I think the best fix is to sandwich with plywood. |
| jgood | 27-Oct-08 07:05 |
| A sandwich sounds good Steve. Also, maybe some of that thread could have gone around the vertical part of the wire. |
| SteveM | 27-Oct-08 12:22 |
| Yes, more thread around the vertical portions would have helped. I was just looking at the Guillow's directions and confirmed that I did put in the main spar backwards. If installed correctly the gear wires would tend to try to rotate into the plywood spar rather than away from it, which is a much stronger joint. |
| jgood | 27-Oct-08 13:26 |
| Ah, yes, good point about putting it on the other side of the spar... |
| hjlittman | 27-Oct-08 15:53 |
| I think that all the above suggestions apply. Also, that vinyl spar supplied in the kit is very strong and not that heavy. I put it in my BF-109 just for the strength even though it will be flown "gear up". |
| SteveM | 27-Oct-08 17:07 |
| I neglected to mention it, but I found the vinyl spar was very squishy and I wondered at Guillow's claim that it was superior to plywood. I cut my own spar from 1/16" plywood and found it actually weighed a little less than the vinyl spar. So ultimately I went with plywood because of lower weight, perceived strength, and a wood-wood joint that I could use PVA glue on. Maybe some day I'll have to use the vinyl and see how it stands up. |
| hjlittman | 27-Oct-08 18:59 |
| The plywood is probably strong enough as long as it didn't get broken in the hard landing. if you decide to sandwich the gear between the spar and another piece of plywood you might try drilling a hole on either side of the gear leg for small bolts to keep the sandwich clamped tight under the landing loads. |
| bbaumer | 28-Oct-08 11:45 |
| I'd suggest a small block of basswood, grooved and drilled to accept the wire. Let the block span fully between ribs, and add some 1/4" tri-stock to brace the ends against the ribs.
Be aware though, if you get a solid anchor condition for the wire, a rough landing now destroys the entire wing. |
| SteveM | 28-Oct-08 13:22 |
| Those are both good ideas and I will try to incorporate parts of them into my next build. But for now I had to find a solution that was minimally invasive since the wing was covered, the following picture will show my fix. |
