Newbie, First Trianer

[sareev]

Hi All
I'm an older guy (over 50) planning to start a new hobby. I'm new to RC and this forums. Many years ago I had my private pilots licence. It got a bit to costly for a recreation. So now something new.
I have a FT Explorer and power pack C ordered for may first trainer. I expect this trainer will take a beating so I plan to do a scratch build for a second trainer. Are there any suggestions what I should build for a second trainer that would work with the C power pack?
Also can wheels be mounted on the Explorer without messing up the flight characteristics?

Thank you for any information.

 

[Liam B]

Firstly, welcome to the forums! I would recommend the Storch as your second plane. As far as it goes for landing gear, it shouldn't effect flight characteristics enough to be noticeable. Just use some of https://store.flitetest.com/medium-landing-gear-wire-4pk/ for wire and https://store.flitetest.com/wheels-2-75-pair/ for wheels. You may need to drill the wheels to fit the axles, but it should work. Just bend the wire to a shape that fits the wheels onto the Explorer.

 

[Hai-Lee]

I fitted an undercarriage to mine a fair while ago now. I used some cheep plastic wheels from a destroyed children's toy, (about 3 inches in diameter). The mounting was simple I fitted a straight axle onto a plywood square and fitted a small square cross member across the stick. I then glued the axle against the cross stick so that on landing the axle was pushed into the cross stick and then glued the plywood to the underside of the fuselage just below and forward of the wing leading edge. Axle length is such that the wheels are just clear of the side of the fuselage. (very narrow track but stable enough to allow taxiing back to the pits post flight.

A performance note: Because of the thrust angle and the power I have fitted the ground runs are excessively long and lift off occurs at relatively high speed. I had tried a wire landing gear arrangement of greater height but it failed because at full throttle the gear would flex outwards severely and I did not want to add too much weight with a heavier and stronger wire.

CF or aluminium gear might be a better selection.

NEVER FLY HIGH!!!
(Drugs and flying don't mix )

 

[sareev]

Thanks for the help. I should be ready for some training by the time the snow goes

 

[Hai-Lee]

Found a pic of the gear on my old explorer.



It works, (well sort of)!