I think other than detailing and system organization the fuselage is complete. As noted the gear mounts were notoriously substandard and with the arrival of a set of EFlite 60-120 mains I had reason to tackle this mess. One of the difficult decisions was to remove my carefully fit wheel wells, something that would cause some damage to the wing skin and covering to accomplish. Oh well.

Started with the right wing and soon had most of the hack and slash worked out. I left the remains of several nose ribs to give me some indication of position and dimensions. First was to carve out test ribs from high grade 1/8" balsa sheet. It took a few first attempts to get the contour correct with the smaller outboard ribs following along quickly. This slow first step was the same when fitting the L/G mount pad as the retract and leg had to be fit to the mount and then dropped approximately in place to get some measurements.

Then it was back to the test ribs, repeatedly measuring and cutting to get the pad to sit where intended. Again, it was the first rib that took the longest. The end result has the axle sitting right on the seam between wing and fuselage and to get it recessed enough for comfort some trimming of the original mechanical gear wire guide was required.

Transferring the balsa patterns to the ply was quick and easy with the table saw doing short work of all 8 ribs, (yes, this should be STRONG!). The first test and glue worked well and the assembly comes out of the wing complete for final bonding. There is some work to get all the ribs sanded in perfect line, but all told it came to this stage pretty well.

Time to attack the second wing. Knowing where to cut saved a bit of time and this loose assembly was sitting in place within 20 minutes. At this point I need to do some more fitting to try and get both gears as close to identical as possible. Once the mounts are bonded in place it will be time to work on a skin and gear door setup. Doubtful any of the stock gear pocket will be reinstalled due to interference with the gear offset.

A few points of note: The original wood was held in better than expected from my prior bracing, but the wood itself practically fell apart. Whatever they use for ply was seriously deficient. The second note was that the EFlite retracts are very nice bits of kit. One of the nice differences is that the mount holes are further out from center, meaning I have no interference problems with the blind nuts. In that regard I borrowed the 87 degree countersink bore and worked on both sets till the screws fit flush. Not really necessary if I had button head 6-32 cap screws.

In the set of pics you can see the sequence up to now. In the last shot you can see the assembly fit to the R/H wing. It may look off, but the leg is within a few thou of straight to the spar. Some have found it necessary to angle the gear forward to reduce the tendency to nose over. I'm hoping the fact I am using Robart gear instead of the original spring gear that would bend aft under load work the same.