RE: Top Flite B-25 ARF (Tecnical, tips, suggestions)
Fidelity:
The assembly book says TF specifically designed the Mitchell such that it would be easy to change from the factory supplied fixed gear to retracts. The fixed gear mounts mimic the shape and hole pattern of retracts.
I'm about to get into fixed wing airplane gyro application myself. I've been thinking rudder only for my TF Mustang and the Mitchell, as they are so difficult to keep straight on a paved runway in any kind of crosswind. I'm also working on a Dan Savage F-4 Phantom (EDF) that will have a rudder only gyro.
IMHO, the Mitchell doesn't need three axis, it's that easy to fly. (You wouldn't want it on a crosswind landing, anyhoo, as the neat part of rudder only is that it will track parallel to the runway, while you use a variable amount of aileron into the wind to keep it aligned over the center of the runway. They call it crossed controls when i was taking primary flight training about 100 years ago.)
On the Mitchell, if you go to a gyro, I'd suggest that you not turn it off in flight. If you lose an engine, things are going to happen rather quickly and you might not get it turned back on in time. After almost three years of learning to fly helis, I've acquired the habit of using the rudder stick in turns. This overrides the gyro and allows a normal turn. Takes a bit of getting used to, but it works.
Electric retracts are inherently more powerful than air ops, due to the worm gearing. The motor has a tremendous mechanical advantage over the strut block because of it. On air ops, it's a reverse lever system, and it's not possible to make the cylinders large enough to generate the kind of power the electrics can. Even at 120 psi a half inch piston will generate less than 50 pounds of thrust. After going through the reverse lever system I doubt if the force on the strut block equals 10 pounds.