john agnew

TS

I think you are in great danger of overcomplicating your Rookie. If you want to reduce the chance of FOD ingestion forget gear doors. They are a complication you don't need. Your main worry with the rookie is going to be making your first few landings. A heavy landing is likely to damage your gear doors which may curtail your flying session.

If you are worried about FOD make up internal wheel wells out of balsa / ply for the nose leg and use something like a cut down plastic container for the main wheels. If you have the RCJI which shows the Eurosport build you will see how to do the noseleg well.

Keep it simple!!

John

Wayne22

My Feedback: (2)

Yeah....what he said...

TREADSTONE.

Righty-Ho... good points..its complicated enough as it is...Thanks gents..

MAX EFFFORT

yep, i agree with you on that one john. I wouldn't put gear doors on my harpoon (mains anyway), unless i did them like i described earlier in post #70. and then it would be only on another new rookie or harpoon, without the airbrake cutout yet.. there should be no difference in those doors and having the airbrake down if you did land too hard, so there is no down side that i see to that type of geardoor/airbrake combo.. the only question is- would the plane be as stable with the airbrake deployed and 10 inches rearward? and about fod, a fod screen is a must, imo.

TREADSTONE.

Just went scooting back to post #70 ...keep it simple as you say is perhaps the best idea.....but looking at Sandor's 3 rd picture in post #71 his airbrake looks to be MUCH bigger than mine.. [:-] ( which is'nt cut out just yet by the way..)....? Have some folks enlarged their airbrake and for that matter... have some not bothered at all...?

john agnew

TS

The 'Roo / Rookies need the airbrake. I would stick with the dimension in the manual. If you make it much bigger it will slow the model down too much and may also lack rigidity and then you will have to stiffen it up which might mean you need a more powerfull servo and then------

Look let's not go down that road!!

John

MAX EFFFORT

i agree again john, air-brake is a must. and original size is probably best.. but if someone made the airbrake/main gear door combo set-up, they would be best done in a some what triangular or p51 shape, to come closer to the origin airbrake area size, since the wheels would need more room than the original air-brake width.

digitech

My Feedback: (10)

the airbrake is original as mentioned in the manual

MAX EFFFORT

mine had a recessed outline on the belly for the airbrake, from the mold i believe. i just cut it with a very thin dremel cutttig wheel. the mfg may have made some with different sizes..

TREADSTONE.

Yeah i was going to put two photo'up side by side this morning but i got sidelined somewhere along the way...there is clearly a difference between the two..

KFalcon

My Feedback: (18)

After owning 3 Rookies, I cut the speed brake larger on the last one. I was able to use more power when landing so the time it took to get to full throttle was cut in half. I was landing with a click or so of throttle, now I use around quarter throttle. I would recommend this and would do it again.