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#11
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Has anyone built their own landing gear?
On May 11, 7:30 pm, Orval Fairbairn
wrote: In article , Lou wrote: This could be an interesting thread. There's a lot to this subject that often gets overlooked. Just a thought but the air/oil spring/shockabsorbers used on motorcycle rear suspenson might be useful in a trailing link maingear. They are fairly light and the weight they support would be about the same as a 2-seater light aircraft. It's funny you should say that. I've wondering about that and possibly the rear or front shocks of the motocross bikes. They take a hell of a beating and seem to stay together. Caveman, it's called an Asso V. Asso is Italian for Ace or thats what I've been told. The picture that the link goes to is red, so that means that somewhere there is a big red asso flying around. Lou http://www.homebuilt.org/kits/littner/champion.html I have a question: Why do you want to cobble up such a beautiful, clean design with a fixed landing gear? It seems to me that you want to spend a lot of time, effort and money on making your plane slower and less efficient than the basic design. -- Remove _'s from email address to talk to me. I know, sounds ridiculous. But I look at it this way. Given the numbers the way they are, it may or may not hurt by putting in fixed gear. With insurance cost going up for retract, I didn't feel it to be a good investment. Also, this is my first plane and I want to keep it as simple as possible. Last but not least, and I'm not sure on this, but with the speeds and weight, it can qualify for LSA with fixed gear. Lou |
#12
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Has anyone built their own landing gear?
"Lou" wrote in message
... I'm curious if anyone has either designed and built or built from plans, their own landing gear and how they did it. I know, I know, I could follow the plans. But the plans call for a retractable gear system that I don't want at this time. What I'm looking for is a oleo strut style with brackets that attach to the spars. Anyone? Anyone? Anyone? Lou Lou ........... The Emeraude plans include a gear much like the one you're looking for. I've built two of them now, one for my plane and one for another fellow's project. While it doesn't have an oleo system, it works excellently. There is a main spring on the top and a lighter rebound spring on the bottom, all within the upper leg. It is intended for an aircraft weight of 800 - 1000# empty with a ~500# useful load. Spring selection can change that to less if you like, but the gear is plenty beefy to even handle more. There are two flanges welded on the upper leg which "sandwich" around the main spar and bolt through blocks glued on the outside of the spar. Oops - just thought of something. Are you talking about a conventional gear or a milk stool? Rich S. |
#13
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Has anyone built their own landing gear?
The Emeraude plans include a gear much like the one you're looking for. I've
built two of them now, one for my plane and one for another fellow's project. While it doesn't have an oleo system, it works excellently. There is a main spring on the top and a lighter rebound spring on the bottom, all within the upper leg. It is intended for an aircraft weight of 800 - 1000# empty with a ~500# useful load. Spring selection can change that to less if you like, but the gear is plenty beefy to even handle more. There are two flanges welded on the upper leg which "sandwich" around the main spar and bolt through blocks glued on the outside of the spar. Oops - just thought of something. Are you talking about a conventional gear or a milk stool? Rich S. Hi Rich, This sounds exactly like what I'm looking for. Is it a bad idea to ask if you still have the drawings for the landing gear?. By the way, what the heck is the milk stool. Lou |
#14
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Has anyone built their own landing gear?
"cavelamb himself" wrote in message m... Lou wrote: This could be an interesting thread. There's a lot to this subject that often gets overlooked. Just a thought but the air/oil spring/shockabsorbers used on motorcycle rear suspenson might be useful in a trailing link maingear. They are fairly light and the weight they support would be about the same as a 2-seater light aircraft. It's funny you should say that. I've wondering about that and possibly the rear or front shocks of the motocross bikes. They take a hell of a beating and seem to stay together. Caveman, it's called an Asso V. Asso is Italian for Ace or thats what I've been told. The picture that the link goes to is red, so that means that somewhere there is a big red asso flying around. Lou http://www.homebuilt.org/kits/littner/champion.html That looks suspiciously like a Falco! 1000 pounds gross weight Say 3 G's impact loading (on each leg, becaues sometimes that's exactly what happens. I'g go with 3000 pounds leg loading vertical and 1-1/2 G side load (1500 pounds) Are you up on landing gear design? (I'm guesing no, since you are asking here) How about this... Build it per plans, but with a fixed retract link? Richard And it's Lamb, Lou. We're real sensitave about that the since Geico commercials. -- It looks suspiciously like a Falco to me as well--despite the reduced power and weight. But, so do a lot of my own doodle pad sketches and that makes it hard for me to critisize. BTW, those Geico commercials are /really/ annoying! Peter |
#15
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Has anyone built their own landing gear?
"Lou" wrote in message
... Hi Rich, This sounds exactly like what I'm looking for. Is it a bad idea to ask if you still have the drawings for the landing gear?. By the way, what the heck is the milk stool. Lou ............. Last question first - "Milk Stool" is a sort of derogatory term for a tricycle landing gear. I went to the web site and see that you are planning just that. Since you are already dealing with Sylvie Littner, I might suggest the most ethical thing to do would be to give her a call and see if she'll run off a copy of the Emeraude landing gear plans (one sheet) and sell them to you at a reasonable cost. Failing that, I do have my copy of the gear plans and could figure out some way for you to get the necessary specs. Mine are from a source that is out of business and are not from the current model plans which Littner sell. The bugaboo here is that the Emeraude has a conventional gear. (two mains & a tailwheel) You'd be venturing into unknown territory to adapt the design to a tri-wheel configuration. I believe Falconar http://www.falconaravia.com/ sells plans for a tri-gear Emeraude modification which may contain all the info you need. Another possibility which comes to mind is that Sylvie has (or recently had) a few oleo struts which were nose gear struts from Aero Commander Darters. They were stored in her basement shower room and she badly wanted to sell them and get them out of there. A fellow in Pittsburgh used two of them as main gear legs on his Emeraude and they were as light as my non-oleo legs. His biggest problem was machining a bevel piece to fit between the strut and the fork, so the wheel was 90 deg. to the ground instead of at the dihedral angle. So, there are some options for you. Give those folks a call and see what they suggest. Rich S. |
#16
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Has anyone built their own landing gear?
On May 13, 3:16 pm, "Rich S."
wrote: "Lou" wrote in message ... Hi Rich, This sounds exactly like what I'm looking for. Is it a bad idea to ask if you still have the drawings for the landing gear?. By the way, what the heck is the milk stool. Lou ............. Last question first - "Milk Stool" is a sort of derogatory term for a tricycle landing gear. I went to the web site and see that you are planning just that. Since you are already dealing with Sylvie Littner, I might suggest the most ethical thing to do would be to give her a call and see if she'll run off a copy of the Emeraude landing gear plans (one sheet) and sell them to you at a reasonable cost. Failing that, I do have my copy of the gear plans and could figure out some way for you to get the necessary specs. Mine are from a source that is out of business and are not from the current model plans which Littner sell. The bugaboo here is that the Emeraude has a conventional gear. (two mains & a tailwheel) You'd be venturing into unknown territory to adapt the design to a tri-wheel configuration. I believe Falconarhttp://www.falconaravia.com/sells plans for a tri-gear Emeraude modification which may contain all the info you need. Another possibility which comes to mind is that Sylvie has (or recently had) a few oleo struts which were nose gear struts from Aero Commander Darters. They were stored in her basement shower room and she badly wanted to sell them and get them out of there. A fellow in Pittsburgh used two of them as main gear legs on his Emeraude and they were as light as my non-oleo legs. His biggest problem was machining a bevel piece to fit between the strut and the fork, so the wheel was 90 deg. to the ground instead of at the dihedral angle. So, there are some options for you. Give those folks a call and see what they suggest. Rich S. How about that, I learn something new every day. Actually, I've asked Sylvia about a set of landing gear plans and she offered to sell me a set for about $400, and she would through in the whole set of plans.. I do remember her selling the struts and if I remember correctly she wanted a pretty penny for them. I've got an idea of how I want to do them, what I need most of all is the correct type of materials, (steel Aluminum 7073, 6061) and thickness that I can count on. Getting springs and struts to do what I want isn't exactly rocket science. A drawing always helps, so yes, I love to have one, but the more important information is the kind, type and thickness of the materials. Lou |
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