Problem alert!

The Focus from Piedmont Models has a serious landing gear problem. The plywood landing gear plate is inadequate for the job and will break very easily. The two piece landing gear does not distribute the load over the entire plate and will break the plate in half with just a light hit on one side. Mine broke in half and was torn loose from the fuselage just hitting a bump while taxiing on the ground.

In addition, the blind nuts will not stay tight, even with lock-tite, due to the softness of the plywood plate and the flexing of the gear. Just replacing the wood is not sufficient. The nuts will not stay tight. I took a 7 inch wide gear and cut 2 inches out of the middle and butted the ends against each other and put the 2 inch piece on top of the butt joint and bolted it all with bolts and nuts. It has not loosened up yet.

Piedmont Models showed no interest in correcting the problem. They need to get more complaints before anything happens.

There are only two of these planes at my field, and both of them have suffered landing gear plate failures. The other one was from a soft landing in the grass at the end of the field after a dead stick.

Anyone else had this problem?