RC Plane Retractable Landing Gear Repair

RC Jim works throught the repair of the retractable landing gear on a E-Flite 1.2m P-51 foam aircraft. The gear were bent from a heavy landing, and Jim wanted to be careful not to damage the foam. He works through an effective and easy solution for this repair.

[@JuanRincon-ef4wg]

👌Simple and excellent !

[@RCJim]

It works!

[@leozengy]

Thanks! i also have the same issue with mine. your vid helps a lot!

[@RCJim]

Glad it helped!

[@RCJim]

I've had to do this same repair every time I have flown the plane since I did this video. This explains why I was having issues prior to the repair with the plane nosing over when on the ground. I'll be doing a follow-up video, but my current conclusion is that as the landing gear only has one very small portion of heavy piano wire that is able to bend, normal bumping along the ground during takeoff and landing is bending it slightly in every flight. If it had a longer wire to bend rather than the rigid scale look gear, then it would have more 'give' without a lasting deformation. At the moment I'm bending it back after every few flights, but I'll be looking for a better design for the landing gear.

[@tlrcamp8009]

You should sell these pieces of wood with the cut outs for eflite servos

[@RCJim]

That is a thought!

[@JuanRincon-ef4wg]

Hey Jim, what about when you get a twisted landing gear after a bumping landing. I tried to fix it by turning in the opposite direction, but now it is a little loose, with a moving angular tolerance around its axis. Any suggestion?

[@RCJim]

What sort of gear is it? Just bent piano wire?

[@RCJim]

ie is it for the P-51 or something else. If it’s the P51 I would expect that the piano wire has rotated inside the aluminium casting for the scale looking part. I would take the unit out of the plane, use something like my jig to support the base, then do what it takes to rotate it back where it belongs. Then apply some thin CA that will hopefully wick into the joint and keep it there.

[@JuanRincon-ef4wg]

@@RCJim Thanks for the comments. it is a Dynam P51D Mustang 1.2 m, I believe the same kind of E-flite's.

[@tlrcamp8009]

Can you do a video on strut replacement

[@RCJim]

I have a video on my channel for repairing a strut on a FMS Ranger 1.8. Is that the sort of thing you are looking for?

[@RCJim]

ruclips.net/video/bh97mzwW5HE/видео.html

[@tlrcamp8009]

@@RCJim for the 1.2 June nite

[@tlrcamp8009]

@@RCJim landing gear strut

[@RCJim]

Sorry for the delayed follow-up on this. So is the aluminium part of the landing gear broken, or something else?

[@tlrcamp8009]

The landing gear bends way to easily on this bird

[@RCJim]

Agreed. As I mention in the video, the only place it can bend is a very short section of wire. Given that it can't handle heavy landings or model size potholes, they might as well have it heavier and forget about trying to absorb anything with it. But, after having planned on only using the concrete runway when I went out the last time, given that the concrete was mostly covered with water, I continued to fly it off the grass, made very smooth landings, and it didn't bend at all.