RE: MR Aerodesign 1/4 Scale Mudry CAP 10b Review / Build
Day 15
Landing gear mounts.
The plans are interesting here and no parts are provided. The aim is to support your Robostruts in such a way that they can be removed for travel and service and also not come loose or rotate in the mount. here's what I did:
On the wing, I did re-enforce the landing gear plate with tri stock just for piece of mind!
Cut out fourteen 1" x 1" squares of high grade 1/4" ply. Sandwich them together with 30 min epoxy and clamp them firmly to for a nice solid block. Make sure they stay as aligned as possible.
Once dry, sand the sides and make sure the are all at 90 degrees.
No comes the tricky part....
Make a plywood template that had an angle of 6 degrees. Use this to line up the block in a vice for drilling. Use a drill press to drill the holes. make sure you offset the entry point to kep the hole centered.
Start will a small drill and increase sizes to 1/4"
I cut the heads off two 1/4" stainless steel bolts that will run through the blocks into the tops of the struts. they will be secured in the struts be grub screw(set screws) as designed by Robart.
The treaded end will pass through a 1/4" wheel collet first then the block and a 1/4" jam nut will secure the whole thing together. Confused. look at the pictures.
The collet is special too. this is the anti-rotation device. i drilled through and tapped the other side so two long set screws could be used.
The set screws will lock into grooves i cut in the bottom of the gear blocks and prevent the gear from rotating.
Once the assemblies are complete. Glue the blocks into the wings with 30 min epoxy and make sure the legs are square with the center section, and thus perpendicular to the ground.
Be very carefull to make sure to get the left and right side correct!!!
So how do we get to the nut after we have sheeted the wing?
Well the full size Cap 10 has a small hatch on top of the wing above each leg. That is where a pressure valve for the shock absorber is found. This panel will be a small 1" round hatch held on with magnets. just big enough to access the nuts for gear removal. Nice eh
Note: The plans shows; A, holding the gear on with screws from the bottom and B, drilling a 1/2" hole in the blocks.
A. If you install the whe;ll fairings and pants you cannot access the screws!!
B. I fealt that drilling a 1/2" hole may weaken the structure too much and is also very hard to drill accurately.