MajorTomski

For those interested in a tail dragger, here's one method of getting control to the tail wheel without trying to tie to the rudder

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39743

I bought the pink LT at a swap meet The tiller approach was very creative.

Tom

GaryHarris

Thats similar to what Ill be doing Tom. I sorta copied the LT-25 except the tiller is homemade and will be bearing mounted.

First pic is of the f-2 former to beef up for bolt down wing mod and the dual dowel rods. The second pic is the main LG with some really fat tires. [8D] Painted the gear flat black and still need to clear coat it for fuel proofing. The third pic is a rough layout of the tail wheel and homemade tiller design. I'm about to put the two fuse sides together so I can figure out how/where to beef up the underside for the tail dragger set up.

GaryHarris

My LT-25 set up.

GaryHarris

The first pic I filled in the sides where the standard main LG would go. I plan not to use the large block and instead fill that gap with ply on the underside. Some of the other pics are standard building and on the last pic I decided to beef up the area near F2 since thats where the new main LG will be.

GaryHarris

I got the main LG done and besides a little ugly-ness on the inside, I'm pretty happy with it. Normally I wouldn't use nylon bolts on the main landing gear but in this case I thought it would be better. The planes stance is pretty high and looks a little goofy, but I wanted it high since I plane on trying another field this season and it's grass.

I'm a little worried about the rear wheel and the angle of the tiller in relationship to the angle of the pull-pull cable routing I had planned. I may have to re-think this. Right after my Texans play.

GaryHarris

I got a little more work done before the game, check my avatar, .

I was worried about the tail wheel pull-pull rigging so I put in the servo tray to check the distance and the acute angles and soon realized it wont be a problem. But the throttle system might and I think I have a cure thanks to the search function here at RCU.

SeamusG

Dude - that was no game.

What material did ya use for the throttle redirecting gizmo? I like the idea of cappin' both ends of a short threaded rod.

GaryHarris

I had a feeling you were paying attention to the game since you lived here so long. The Cowboys are about to play and if they lose, itll be a prefect football day for me.

The throttle gizmo thing's base is aluminum and the arm is made of fiberglass cut from an old circuit board. The reason I used fiberglass is because of a problem I had with a 4*40 and a servo glitch running the cable straight from the servo to the throttle arm on the carb and I hope it acts as an insulator between the two. That 4*40 would just throttle up on it's own and got to be pretty scary.

The rod is what we car guys call ball cups. Right now the rod is just a piece of screw with the head cut off for reference purposes but I plan to dig through my car stuff and find an actual turnbuckle the right length with one side having a left handed thread. That will make adjustments pretty easy.

SeamusG

Yea - without the turnbuckle it'd be like a dog chasing its tail.

There are two good types of games: home team blowout (winning of course) and well-fought-both-have-a-chance-to-win-with-2-minutes-left.

GaryHarris

One thing I love about this hobby is the challenges. Nothing is etched in stone and easy.

Smooth as silk. [8D]

SeamusG

Nice work. And Dallas lost ...

GaryHarris

LargeScale88

That Kadet is going to be sitting way HIGH off the ground! I love the homemade throttle linkage too!


Jason

GaryHarris

Thanks Jason. I'm having second thoughts about the height, but I think Ill keep it that way so I don't have to spend anymore money on this build. I have shorter main gear, but itll be flexy and if I lower the main gear, Ill have to lower the rear wheel which = mo muney! I have a back up plan just in case.

GaryHarris

No progress today. Hope it don't hit my nitro and all that balsa. Pretty close.

My bad. Thats fire and smoke.

GaryHarris

Got the taildragger landing gear thing figured out. In the rear I doubled up on the ply. I was thinking of adding some tri-stock for strength in the back, but it's gonna get crowded back there and I think it'll be strong enough.

GaryHarris

Dealing with the rear of the wing.

GaryHarris

Got the wing mounted and the landing gear installed, but I don't have enough room indoors for good pics, and it's raining outside. Lord, we really need this rain!

SeamusG

What? You haven't maidened yet? Geez, ya think it was raining or something.

Got a covering scheme congered up yet?

GaryHarris

Or a fire across the street. [&:]

Covering will be antique Solartex trimmed with black. I have some additional ideas, but not for posting at this time.

SeamusG

Bein' unfamiliar with Solartex as I am - ya gotta do some decent pics.

GaryHarris

Got the tiller design figured out, the tubing ran for the cables and the outer pushrod tubing ran.

MajorTomski

What is the brown stuff you are using for fuel proofing?

GaryHarris

Bleh. It's copper paint before the epoxy coating, but I ended up with flat black.

GaryHarris

Being that the LT-40 has been built by thousands of people and there is many build threads here, I decided just too pretty much take pictures and not get into much detail. That way I spend more time building than typing. I'm a little bummed though in a way. I think I'm done building and it's time to clear the bench and start covering. Framing everything up is my favorite part of building planes and sometimes it seems anti-climatic at this point but, I'm looking forward to getting this plane ready to fly. The weather is cooling down here and so far as good as this build has gone, this will be my "Go To Plane" while the 4*60 is on the bench.