RE: Wheel pants?
I fly off grass all the time since that is what my club runway consists of. Granted it is sod farm grass that we have had for years. I have been a club member here for 7 years and it has not been replaced, thus it is not as smooth as the sod farm grass that is 3' away and much smoother due to being replaced every year. Evenso, I install wheelpants on just about every single plane that comes with them. Over time, even with perfect landings most of the time, wheel pants will eventually get damaged, but I just repair them when needed with extra FG cloth and epoxy on the inside or outside. The repairs give them character, lol. IMHO the planes that come with them look way better with wheel pants. I am a pantsoholic and proud of it. There I said it, haha. I rather put the pants on and repair them sometimes because my planes just look sexier with their pants on. I use the various methods mentioned about using the ply plate, adding one if absent (be sure it is hard ply), hardening with CA, overlaying with more FG cloth and epoxy, etc. Sometimes the holes in the plates just wear out and larger screws are needed, or refill the holes and bore them out again, or locate a new hole in the LG and the pant. Maintaining wheel pants just takes some annual checkups, sometimes more frequently. If I had to fly off really rough grass, as in weeds, such that damage was incurred every time out, then I would probably leave them off. As I mentioned, my field is grass and we keep it short. Jon