I've been reading over again all the advice that David gave me, then going back to look at the DB to help put everything together in my mind. The first thing I've been trying to figure out is the best way to do a mechanical nose gear retract. I looked at some pictures of the Hobbico nose gear retract, and from what I can tell, this retract needs to be mounted on a horizontal plane to the fuselage. I don't think this is possible on this DB, because the fuel tank is right there. I think I need to stick with the original nose gear retract which is mounted vertically to the FW. I've had doubts that I could fit a mini servo in the retract compartment, but I got to thinking that could run the retract linkage back in the fuselage and put a mini servo close to where the other servos will be located. See attachment.
My thought has then been going to the main retracts in the wing. David first said he would personally go with electric retracts to clean up the unsightly bottom of the wing. this seems to be the easiest option. Do you feel David that the electrics will work as well as the mechanical? I want to install ones that have the least chance of problems later.
In a earlier post I said that all three retracts were operated by one servo. I thought that the hatch on the bottom of the wing was to access the servo, and I placed a servo there thinking that was how it mounted. As I look at the top of the wing now, it looks like the servo mounted on top. I think the only reason the hatch is there on the bottom is so the nose gear servo linkage could be disconnected for removal of the wing. Maybe that would be still the best way to operate the main retracts. I can still get rid of that ugly hatch on the bottom. let me know what you think.
I started stripping the cover fabric off the fuselage today. The canopy came up with the fabric, because it was glued on after the fabric covering was installed. I believe I can salvage it. One other thing that also came off with me pulling off the fabric covering was the ventral fin. It was apparently glued on also after the fabric was covered on the fuselage. That seemed a little odd to me.
Lamar
