Timber landing gear repair.

[Frank v B]

Took on a repair after a hard landing.  One leg broke and the second landing gear leg was still in place.... but barely.

Removed both legs completely and cut back all the plastic webbing remaining inside the foam fuselage. 

Glued each leg back individually and clamped it each time. 

In a repair like this, I always glue everything back in place with proper alignment.  Once the glue has dried, I will strengthen everything.

Photo 56- starboard landing gear leg glued and clamped in place
Photo 57- photo shows the bottom of the landing gear leg where it attaches to the fuse.  Note in the fuse you can see the remaining braces embedded in the foam fuse.  I cut these back.


Frank

[Frank v B]

Once the landing gear legs were glued back in place, I drilled out the screw holes all the way through and installed the carbon rod.
This is used to replace strength that used to come from the webbing that was moulded into the fuse.

Photo 58- this photo shows the carbon rod and the drill bit used to drill clear through the fuselage.
Photo 59- this photo is of a bit of piano wire that was smaller than the inside of the carbon rod (pipe).  This way I slip the carbon rod over piano wire and guides it through the fuse without going off line and damaging the foam.  Note that I had to cut the battery latch area down to clear the rod.
Photo 60- the carbon rod (rear) before cutting it off. The front rod is piano wire.

Frank

[Frank v B]

Final details:

- attached the springy thingy between the landing gear legs.
- fixed the hatch- made two pulls to pop it open.  The lock works fine but it needed a finger pull.  One pull is made of clear tape and the one in the center is made of looped dental floss.

Frank

[msatin]

All I can say is "WOW"!

[Michael]

Fantastic repair, Frank!

[Frank v B]

Thanks guys.

After I committed to my repair approach, I Googled "Elite Timber landing gear repair" and the following came up.  I had already concluded that the loads needed to be spread further apart via carbon rods so the landing gear could not act like a lever on landing.  In my opinion the repair video looks good but would not last even 3 landings.  This repair scope was my temporary repair to line everything up before I started with the carbon rods.  Look at time stamp 3:05 where the landing gear repair starts.

Frank


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLsIkfk3cdc