FOCUS gear Mod.

[Henderson,Eric]

I would suggest using a swept landing gear al la Hydeout or Temptation. I tried a set of retract wings on a Focus and noted a couple of inches difference in the wheel positions. Also initial landings tended to bounce if you came in too hot. The wheels work in the current position and you soon learn to land it that way by dragging the tail in! . However the plane will bounce less if you can sweep the gear back.

The problem, that you already identified, is that you have to widen the gear plate to accommodate the wider U/C legs that are available in CF. They put the gear plate as far back as they could - it almost touched the wing - but the plate is tricky to widen.

My recommendation is to replace the existing plate with a plywood box to stop the bolted part flexing. You could leave the trailing 1/4" rail in place. Cut through forward to accommodate the wider U/C-leg-top. Fit a 3/16" "box plate and glue to the   former as well. It is more work, but it is winter and you will not regret a stronger landing gear support on this plane, plus it will be easier to score higher on landings..

Regards,

Eric. 

-----Original Message-----
From: John Crozier [mailto:sjcrozier at comcast.net]
Sent: Friday, February 28, 2003 10:43 AM
To: nsrca discussion
Subject: focus gear


Anybody using Bolly gear on the Focus?
I don't want to do major mods on the landing gear platform.
The Sukhoi style has been suggested, but I can't find it on the Bolly web
site.
Is the swept back design of the F3A large too drastic?
thanx...croz


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