Landing GearLanding Gear
HOLD THE BUS! (8/28/99) Well after finally being able to do a weight and balance I have decided the landing gear is too far aft by about 4 inches. It would have been OK with a 215 pound Subaru or O-200 but the O-290 is tipping the scales at 245 pounds (firewall forward). So plan B involves ripping out the oleo gear and building fiberglass gear legs like those used by Dan Diehl. Dan’s gear legs are too short or I would just buy a set from him. I do plan to buy the upper and lower brackets from Dan but I will have to build my own gear legs. Stay tuned for pictures.
Well no pictures yet but at this point I have the oleo gear removed and I have built up one gear leg. The second gear leg will be done tomorrow. This gear will move the axle about 8 inches forward of the front face of the main spar. The oleos could only place the gear 4 inches forward of the main spar. Also my gear stance will be about 2 feet wider. After weighing everything I will also be saving about 5 pounds by switching to this gear, not to mention it will be more aerodynamic. I took some pictures today (9/4/99) and will try to develop them next week.
Do you know how long it takes to cut 70 layers of glass? :o)
Well as promised here are some pics of the gear legs that were wet out in the mold. Pretty cool huh? As you can see the mold was pretty simple. The legs are made from 18 layers of tri-ply cloth and 18 layers of 22 oz uni spar cap tape. The upper portion is the same size and shape as the Dan Diehl. gear but they are 4 inches longer. This allows me to swing that 65x72 inch Ed Sterba prop without to much worry. :o) They will be attached to the spar using the mounting brackets from Dan Diehl..
Changes last made on: Sept, 11, 19:49:50 1999