jester_s1

Truthfully, if you are bending your nose gear up, you are landing really hard on it. There are guys who will recommend the Fultz gear, but to me that's like building a steel tube reinforcement for your fenders because you keep bumping into the side of the garage when you park your car. Yes, it does prevent the damage, but it's not the right solution. You really need to figure out why are keep hitting your nose gear so hard. It could be that your are nose heavy and trying to land too slowly, or it could be that you are simply not flaring properly. But I can tell you from experience when I was training that good flying technique means very little stress on your landing gear, assuming you're flying off of a surface smooth enough for RC use to begin with.

JohnBuckner

My Feedback: (1)

Finding exact nose gears for any airplane is always a crap shoot this is where the benefits of being a club member can really help. Net work and most old modelers have nose gears by the dozens or more that perhaps can share. .

If the nose gear keeps bending then maybe its doing its job.

John

Tom Nied

I would have to agree with John, "If the nose gear keeps bending then maybe its doing its job." Most of my trainers with tricycle gear always needed some persuasion to straighten out the nose gear. They're easily replaced with a DuBro replacement. But a good tug on it usually brings it back pretty good for the next flight.

Gray Beard

My Feedback: (-1)

I have always found them at hobby people but I think they are from great planes? I have a good vise so when I'm instructing I have a way to straighten them.

52larry52

My Feedback: (1)

I've got a "vice" too......it's model airplanes !

Gray Beard

My Feedback: (-1)

It's piano wire!! I use a really old trainer, like falling apart old. I have straightened the nose gear countless times. I keep an extra nose gear in my flight box for that just in case. I bought it at Hobby People as a complete set for only a couple bucks. Students and refresher pilots are hell on nose gear.

AllModesR/C

Gentleman I need serious help yet again. I picked up this used plane off of Craigslist and I think I got over my head with it. According to the seller it is a Great Planes model and it has a Super Tigre 40 engine. The area where it needs help is the servo rods. They are all crossed and I can't figure out how to fix this. It is rather difficult to explain so I am posting a detailed picture to help make the situation clear.




This is what the plane looks like:




If anyone is by Chicago and is willing to help me in person I will gladly give you a few bucks for your time. Thanks

joebahl

My Feedback: (2)

Well the one top left is your throttle and bottom one goes to your front wheel and rudder so the one top right is your elevator . . They are all missing screws thoand your picture has the elev and rudder crossed . Your nose steering wheel is always hooked to your rudder servo not the elev. So unplug the two and switch them on your reciever . Or if the top right is your rudder hook up the nose wheel push rod to it . Just call me if you still have my number .lol joe

[email protected]

My Feedback: (1)

allmodelsrc ask someone at the field for help that way you will hands on your problems

AllModesR/C

Hi Joe. I made some progress by switching the rods. Still have no clue how to connect them.

This is not something that can be fixed at the field and they are rarely even there so finding somebody will be a challenge.

Calvinman

Hi allModes, it looks like, judging by the length of the pushrods that the nose gear rod crosses over to where the rudder pushrod joins. Sometimes the nose gear steering goes on the same side as the rudder(on the servo arm) sometimes not. the first thing you will want to do is to hook the rudder up to the servo and sort out which side it should be on, then figure out which side the nose wheel will have to be on to steer correctly.

Calvinman

Is the steering arm for the nose wheel on the same side as the control horn for the rudder or are they on opposite sides? Also are the servo's in their original position? The rudder and elevator pushrods can probably be crossed over, but not sure.

joebahl

My Feedback: (2)

Hi the ones with a z bend you have to take the control arm off and slip iy into the holes ,the one with the clevis you just spread apart and stick it in the correct hole . For the clevis tyoe i most times cut a small piece of fuel tubing about 1/8 long or a little less and slip it over the rod then once the clevis is in a control arm hole i slide it up over the clevis so it wont ever spread apart and come loose. I will take a picture and post it tomorrow . joe

joebahl

My Feedback: (2)

I cant tell if i send messages on this site if you will get them so i have a Sig cub forsale with a K+B 60 in it and a pitts style muffler,all servos are in it . If your interested let me know All Modes and if you stop byi can help you for nothing to figure out your pushrods anytime . joe

AllModesR/C

I ended up paying the local hobby shop $70 to fix the rod issues and it tthem four hours. Only to come home and find out the ez connectors they put on the servo arms are too tall preventing the wing from being put on! I fixed the throttle and elevator servos by putting the ez connectors on the bottom of the servo horns. Still need to figure out the rudder/wheel servo. This plane has been really testing my patience. Note to self: never buy a plane with very limited fuselage room.

jester_s1

Are you talking about these?

http://shop.dubro.com/p/e-z-connecto...nnectors?pp=12

If so, I'm going to strongly suggest redoing your pushrods. Why you'd pay a hobby shop $70 to install a couple of screws is beyond me, but those connectors have a long history of failing. They are handy for throttle connections, but they aren't secure enough. The problem with them is they rely on friction to keep the pushrod from slipping, which is a big variable over the years. A much better method is to do a proper "L" bend (make the inside radius at least as big as the wire diameter) and put an EZ link on.

http://shop.dubro.com/p/e-z-link-qty...s-clevis?pp=12

And overall, I haven't seen yet what's giving you so much trouble on your pushrods. Can you explain it better?

Gray Beard

My Feedback: (-1)

Be nice to see a photo of what the hobby shop did?? Early on I used a lot of the EZs in my planes, failure?? No but they do tend to loosen up in the control arm holes and give you control slop. I still use them once in a while for the throttle but that's about it.

AllModesR/C

Yes.

It was more than a couple of screws. They had to replace all the pushrods, servo horns, and put new EZ connectors in place. Here is a picture to explain the problem better. I like your EZ link idea, I'll pick some up.

JohnBuckner

My Feedback: (1)

OK where to start? That servo/linkage installation is the worst I have ever seen and a crash waiting to happen. A hobby shop charged you money to do that?? What do you think is going to happen if you should ever actually need to apply rudder and elevator at the same time, dueling servo arms?

I apologise for being a bit abrupt but that installation is awful for a number of reasons. What you need to do is print out instructions for any conventional trainer any trainer with tricycle gear and follow the installation to the letter. There is never a need to install a pushrod upside down in a servo arm.

John

jester_s1

I have to agree with Johnbuckner. I'd seriously consider showing the manager of the hobby shop how shoddy his employees' work is and asking for a refund. That's just lazy. And never ever take anything to that hobby shop again to be worked on. The mistakes they made are so amateurish and lazy I truly find it hard to believe an actual business would let it leave the shop like that. I'll give you the list of what's wrong with that setup.

1. You never should cross pushrods. It's never necessary, and it may cause binding.
2. The flexible pushrods (are those Golden rods?) are designed to have the sleeve anchored to a solid surface every few inches. It is especially critical right near the servo arm if you want a slop free connection.
3. Straight control arms are stiffer. That funky angle they to ran your nose wheel is going to give you very sloppy control on the ground. There's no excuse for not using a double servo arm for the rudder/ nosewheel setup. Lazy!
4. Never use EZ Links. Just don't.
5. Servo arms are going to interfere with each other. This is simply unacceptable.
6. Your rudder/nosewheel arm is way too long. You might need that much throw for a 3D plane, but never for a trainer. With that arm, you are loosing torque and precision, not to mention that the right setup would have been with a double arm.
7. As you mentioned, the plane can't even be assembled because they didn't bother to check their clearances. That's lucky for you, because had you flown this plane there's a good possibility that it would have gone home in a trash bag.

jester_s1

To give you a visual, these are two examples of good setups that are similar to yours. The purple plane is my Kaos, which I have put at least 200 flights on with the current setup. I have the metal rod in a tube type pushrods in this plane, similar to what's in your trainer. What you can't see in the picture is that a sturdy mount is under the wing mount block that the pushrod tubes are epoxied into. I get very precise control from this setup on the elevator and rudder. No servo arms come near anything else, and I have the minimum servo arm length in use to get the throw I need. It's not obvious in the picture, but the servo on the left is elevated about 1/4 inch to clear the servo arm in the middle. It's a tight fit with the wing on, but it works.

The red plane is my Phaeton II. It has the same servo layout as your plane. This one is a taildragger, but if it had a nosewheel I would have a double control arm the rudder servo and run the pushrod through a tube secured to the fuselage wall much like I did with my Kaos. I used Z bends on all these pushrods instead of L bends with the keepers because I was out of keepers both times when I was setting these planes up. Z bends are just as good as L bends, but they take longer to do. Hopefully these will give you some guidance on how to set up your plane so you can enjoy it a good long time.

AllModesR/C

The owner of the hobby shop is actually one of the guys who did the work. I feel like the biggest fool right now after being ripped off. You'd think if they do repairs they'd know what they're doing. I give up on this plane. Anyone want to take it off my hands? Make an offer!

Gray Beard

My Feedback: (-1)

Instead of giving up why don't you now take the time and learn how to do it correctly yourself and chalk it up to a learning experience. Correctly is a loose term too. We all do things a bit differently. In Jesters first photo I see him using a couple of what we call Ball links/swivels, a couple clevises and even what is known as a Y. All are very good and much better then the EZ connection. Everything has it's place and use too.
Example of different is my one plane I have with a trike gear. Instead of a steering rod connected to the rudder servo I used a small micro servo in the nose that controls the steering wheel. My radio allows me to do something like this and it's a scratch built plane that didn't have the room to allow the control rod so I came up with my own set up. As my basic instructor said, it's your plane, you can do anything you want to it as long as it works.
The problem with my set up is you better know how to land and set the main gear down first or you will strip the gears out of the steering servo. I used a throttle braided wire instead of a rod too, it's short and acts like a shock so it gives me a little room for error, not much but some.
A clevis is a much better system then an EZ. It looked like those two EZs they installed are already at an angle and will wobble loose in no time, they may have left them loose already? If so then they will wobble the control arm holes out in no time.
Yes, you got burnt by the dumbass hobby shop so lesson learned. Do it yourself, it isn't very hard to do it correctly, you just need a few parts and a lesson in soldering would also help so you know how to solder on a clevis to a control wire for those times it's needed.

bikerbc

Do you still want some advice figuring out the push rods? .. I have a few ideas .

AllModesR/C

Yes please!