Strut door
Hi Marc, yes, it does...the landing gear is definitely the achillis heel of the kit and takes a lot of time to get it installed and to operate scale.
Actually, the way the pneumatic landing gear functioned was one of the reasons to set this project aside for a while.
About two years ago, a German friend warned me that there was something wrong with the welds of (only) the first kits, on of his main gear legs broke of during a normal landing.
I've send mine in and also requested the adjustable springs.
But it took more than six months and some persuasion before i got it back...without the adjustable springs...
To obtain scale extension and rectraction, I've thought about a mechanical leverage system using one big pneumatic cylinder in the fuselage, but this would require major changes in the structure.
An electrical operation looked appealing, but I do not like the (over) current shut-off system, hence the project on hold.
2014...Michael Franke informed me that he had send his gear to Behotec.
They can change the gear to electrical operation using a stepping motor which counts the number of steps/revolutions and uses overcurrent protection as a back-up.
Did it too and it functions really perfectly. The retraction time with a 3s LIPO is almost perfectly scale.
Decided to make the strut doors removable by making L-shaped aluminium brackets on the strut and in the doors.
