I will post for those interested how I'm doing the instalation of a nose wheel retract on my Long EZ 46. I know that this airplane is not available anymore and probably will not be restocked but the retract could be retrofit to a flying airplane no problem. The retract is a Hobbico unit.
Should look a little more scale with the retract...Now I had to cut the bottom of the fuselage for the wheel well. I also added some 1/4'' harwood block on the platform to bring the retract flush with the bottom of the fuselage.
On the first picture you can see that I began to build the wheel well with 1/8'' balsa. In the second picture, I added a 1/8'' part of plywood to the top surface of the platform. It doesn't really mather how much weight I add around the nose wheel area since the black weight you see in the second picture is actualy meant to be on that platform for balance. If it become too nose heavy, all I will have to do is remove a chunk of that weight or change it for a lighter one. Since weight is not really a problem, I will add as much reinforcement that I feel is required to the front part of the airplane.
Now a little reinforcement to the front bulkhead since I made some cuts into it and not to mention that I'm adding a lot of epoxy everywhere in that area. As I was looking at the area of the main landing gear to see where it needed more glue, it became obvious to me that the next modification would be to add an air brake like the real thing...
Sorry if I'm slow to show my progress but I apparently have work to do to get my pay according to my boss...Anyway, I trial fitted the retract unit, put some epoxy on the blind nuts and completed the wheel well out of 1/8'' balsa and a block that I carved to accept the wheel.
< Message edited by shotgun06 -- 10/3/2007 6:45:11 PM >
I had to reverse the arm that control the elevator because there was not enough clearance left as the wheel well gets in the way. Not a big deal, I had to make some room in the bulkhead as you can see in the last picture.
I used a Dubro flex cable for steering control and a steel rod for retract activation. The steel rod is taking some room where the throttle servo is supposed to be located so I'm gonna have to use a smaller servo or move the servo somewhere else.
I built a servo tray to hold the retract servo and the SPEEDBRAKE servo. I found an old small servo that I bought many years ago for my 7 channel EK Logictrol radio (I still have it collecting dust...), it is still like new (don't remember the brand...) and I changed the plug to Futaba. It's working perfectly and it fits in the space left in the servo tray. Now I'm going to start working on the speedbrake...
< Message edited by shotgun06 -- 10/3/2007 7:30:45 PM >
I carefully cut the shape of the speedbrake with the front being flush with the bulkhead and the rear being flush with 1/4'' stick I glued in front of the landing gear box. The sides are cut flush with the triangular stick on the bottom sides. That makes the speedbrakes almost exactly square. I made a plywood doubler for the brake and a control arm. I've glued in between 4 Dubro hinges side by side to make it look like it's a piano hinge like the real thing.
To finish retract instalation, I cut the nosecone to make room for the retract. I will have to wait to install the nosewheel since I broke the leg while I was trying to bend it. I ordered an adjustable axle to fix that. Anybody know how to bend piano wire without breaking it?
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Long EZ 46 Modification - Retract Instalation - 
like the real thing...
