Main gear geometry.

After doing several tests with the Hysol, it was time to put it all to work. I’ve built two of these little clamps out of circuit-board material, some K&S tubing and a rod. They grip to the strut using the screw you see in the photo.

Then came the hard part – figuring out the geometry of all this so it actually worked. Here’s a shot of what I ended up with:

Quite a bit of trial and error, but this strut works like a dream. I still have to build up the inside of the doors to a scale thickness, but that’s the easy part and I’ll work on that once the other gear is finished.

Here’s a Quicktime movie of how it all works.

Tailwheel retract mounted.

Nothing spectacular here, but the tailwheel retract is mounted. Also took the time to spray a bit of clear over the internal wood as it will be exposed to exhaust from time to time.

Also took the time to paint the inside of the main-gear wells and the trailing edge of the wing.