Ground handling was thought to be improved by substituting a custom aluminum landing gear with the 2"of rake-back in place of the rather unrefined spindly appearance and springy-ness of the music wire gear legs. After mulling over the changes to the forward fuselage chin area and weight increase to accommodate an aluminum gear, I decided to stay with the stock music wire gear and instead added the fairings for cosmetic benefit. After fabrication of the aluminum gear and comparing weight to the stock gear, it just reinforced my decision to stay with the wire gear.


Balsa blank fabrication -

Carving out cove for gear wire -

Card stock patterns used to fabricate 1/64" ply skins to cover balsa cores -

Tools used to cover gear fairings -

Prep work for covering material with sharpened brass tube at radii and knife for the straights -

Lower side cover and seam trim -

Gear leg clamped in vise - covering pulled against blade to trim along Sharpie line -

Aluminum gear and wire gear with fairings -

Aluminum gear leg -

Wire gear with new fairings -