CBRC-Tom3rd

Just received my Patriot kit last Friday and am slowly planning out what to equip it with. Right now I'm stuck on what retracts to install. Our club's field is grass and I always seem to be bending the struts on my fixed gear planes back forward every few flights. Its not that I'm landing the planes hard but the thick grass seems to really grab the gear. Can anyone that uses a Patriot off of a grass field suggest a durable set of retracts that work well? I'll be using a Jet .50 if that makes a difference.
Thanks for any help and ideas.

Razor-RCU

My Feedback: (50)

I do not fly off grass but my Patriot Jett-50 combo has Spring Air retracts (605 or 603's?) and they are VERY strong-

Remember on the Patriot with the tricycle gear the gear legs are fairly short and after the mains touch the nose gear helps offset some of the pushing that normally bends gear backwards-


Mine will flat-out break at the joint or in the wing before they will give much!

You will love that combo by the way-

I run an APC 9x9 on 15% with an OS-8 plug... Simply awesome!

Keep us posted!
james`

Methanolover

Hi !

I fly of & on grass with the combo in post 81, 85 at http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_53.../tm.htm#530782

Lots of flights this summer and happy with it, sometimes when I make a not so good landing I might have to adjust the 4mm pin that connects the strut to retractmechanism

The Eurokit struts are springsuspensioned, looks good and reduces impact , I'll post a closer pic of them soon

Rubbie

Spring Air make a thin retract for the patriot give the factory a call or head to the website at www.retracts.com (it hope the link it still works). I have run 3 patriots all with spring airs on long grass fields and have never had a problem with them.

RPZ

The Robart Pneumatic retracts will also be really good - but I recomend using 3/16" struts if you want them to stay straight given the roughness of grass. The caveat of going with the larger legs is that a rough landing will get transferred to the wing instead of getting absorbed in the legs - It's a lot easier to straighten out the legs and occasionally replace them, then it is to reseat the gear mount after it has been ripped out of the wing! I would suggest that on grass, the standard legs are likely the best route for longevity of the airframe.

Methanolover

Eurokit legs that I use and the succesfully working steerable nosewheel.
(sorry about the blurred pics)

RPZ

Interesting - I am unfamiliar with this manufacturer (Eurokit). Is there a website that shows the product line and is there a distributor in North America?

t_man75

My Feedback: (3)

I was also interested in these retracts. I found their website but there is no distributor in North America right now. Here is the website [link=http://www.eurokitplane.com/]http://www.eurokitplane.com/[/link]

vasek

My Feedback: (4)

i have B&D retracts, they are are made out of hard plastic thus no bending on grass field and they are inexpensive too! (50$)

check it out

Tabushi

Mhhhh we have a patriot on our club and he uses hobbico standar retracts and are lighter than the pneumatic ones ... he lands on asphalt and grass without problem for more than one year ago ...

cya !

PAT

Balsa Master

as soon as Eurokit desides that they want there whole site to nut be under construction, id love to get some, the look good and i like the spring to take a little off those hard landings.

CBRC-Tom3rd

How much of a speed difference, estimated, is there between the use of retracts and fixed gear? I was thinking that if the difference wasn't too much that fixed gear with thin or streamlined wheels would be the way to go for building ease and cost control. Cost control... never really had to use that word with regards to my flying hobby until the wife discovered that dang "Trading Spaces" show on TV... the scourge of married men everywhere!

mpriestley

My Feedback: (1)

Question regarding the nose gear retract on the Patriot

the instructions say that a standard servo will be enough to operate the nose gear hobbyco retract. is this for real.

I have not yet finished the linkage but it sure seems to take a lot of torque, and with the servo all the way in the tale it just seems scary.

by the way, I have heard alot of people talking about the bad steering of the patriot. What is the problem and how do I fix it.


Thank you,

mike

Balsa Master

hey Tabushi how much his plane weigh and what engine he use? since i plane to seriously overpower mine and make it a little heavier (*ok a lot heavier) as a result.

Razor-RCU

My Feedback: (50)

Hey Mike- I have a STD. servo (Fut 148) on my steering and it seems fine but there is way too much play with the rods traveling that distance to the nose-wheel...plus using the same servo to work the rudder-

On my next Patriot I would put the servo right next to the front of the wing saddle (since that is WIDE open-) to shorten the linkage and "Y" it to a separate rudder servo-

RPZ

I thought that the steering linkage was way to long also. In fact, I have this thing about putting steering on the same servo as the rudder, as there is invariably a different amount of travel needed for the two controls. Also, a rough landing is hard on the steering servo - especially when using small wheels (I like 1.5" wheels on my fast planes), so a stripped steering servo will not affect the ruddder control. In terms of location, the plans sure have a lot of bends in that little 2-56 rod that operates the mech. retract - in my experience it's way too much and will tourque in several locations unless properlu supported against flex. On the other hand, when you take out the two servos for the retracts and replace them with an air system, the weight differential is negligable and the cool factor gos way up. I also find air-retracts just more reliable than mechanicals - but that's personal preference.

tashley

My Feedback: (9)

It's really hard to beat Spring Air retracts. There are other retracts out there that cost less, but SA's are built like a brick ****house strength wise, are very well engineered, and are fail safe. If you lose air pressure for any reason, the gear comes down. I just can't talk myself into using anything else.

Tom

Dave03B

I have fixed gear with sprung oleos. Flying buddies reckons I'd gain an extra 15-20mph if they were retracted. So thats what I'm now in the process of doing, fitting retracts.

Good luck all!