Aluminum Landing Gear?

[balsa basher]

I have grown tired of my failure when I form my own landing gear, I can't get the planes to track straight enough to take off, any one tried aluminum landing gear? Will it add too much weight? I'm thinking of putting one on my sportster.
Any thoughts?
Thanks!
See you all at Flitefest Ohio 24!!!

 

[Merv]

...I can't get the planes to track straight enough to take off...

To improve tracking, try some toe in.
Make the wheels point to an imaginary point 10 feet or so in front of the plane.

 

[paradawks]

I have grown tired of my failure when I form my own landing gear, I can't get the planes to track straight enough to take off, any one tried aluminum landing gear? Will it add too much weight? I'm thinking of putting one on my sportster.
Any thoughts?

I use a cheap bent aluminum landing gear from Amazon on a bunch of planes like the Simple Scout and FT-3D. I hot glue a popsicle stick across the bottom of the fuselage a little in front of the leading edge and add some packing tape for extra support. It sticks out about 2 cm on each side. Then use elastic bands to hold the landing gear onto those tabs. If you try to attach the aluminum directly to the foam, it will just end up ripping out. Using the elastic lets it absorb some impact and it will generally just collapse with no damage to the plane on a hard landing and pop back into place when you pick it up.

 

[balsa basher]

I use a cheap bent aluminum landing gear from Amazon on a bunch of planes like the Simple Scout and FT-3D. I hot glue a popsicle stick across the bottom of the fuselage a little in front of the leading edge and add some packing tape for extra support. It sticks out about 2 cm on each side. Then use elastic bands to hold the landing gear onto those tabs. If you try to attach the aluminum directly to the foam, it will just end up ripping out. Using the elastic lets it absorb some impact and it will generally just collapse with no damage to the plane on a hard landing and pop back into place when you pick it up.

Thanks so much for the info, I will try it!

 

[McDonaldDJ1]

I use a cheap bent aluminum landing gear from Amazon on a bunch of planes like the Simple Scout and FT-3D. I hot glue a popsicle stick across the bottom of the fuselage a little in front of the leading edge and add some packing tape for extra support. It sticks out about 2 cm on each side. Then use elastic bands to hold the landing gear onto those tabs. If you try to attach the aluminum directly to the foam, it will just end up ripping out. Using the elastic lets it absorb some impact and it will generally just collapse with no damage to the plane on a hard landing and pop back into place when you pick it up

I can see this thread has been inactive for over half a year, but can you post a picture of the set up you're describing here? I have aluminum gears and I know the foam can't brace a full impact on such a small area. Also, I don't want to fabricate my own landing gear struts from wire.

 

[Merv]

... can you post a picture of the set up you're describing here...

This is how I do the landing gear on all of my planes. I use tongue depressers inside & outside of the fuse, then zip tie the gear on. When I have a rough landing the zip ties break away & the gear drop off. It's an easy fix to zip tie them back on.

 

[Foam Folder]

I have grown tired of my failure when I form my own landing gear, I can't get the planes to track straight enough to take off, any one tried aluminum landing gear? Will it add too much weight? I'm thinking of putting one on my sportster.
Any thoughts?
Thanks!
See you all at Flitefest Ohio 24!!!

Sure 6061 T6 aluminum

 

[kingfieldbill]

im going to have to try something similar to mervs set up. id much rather replace a couple of zip ties over scabbing in a new section of fuse. are those the real narrow (1/8 in) ties? do they break on slightly hard landings or just the really rough ones?