Nice thread you have started, Miguel.....

Three of us up here in Wisconsin are building Vipers......

We did swap out the 3421's in the elevators for 9411's which are a little taller....to solve the cover problem, we are using plastic hatches from Todd at Dreamworks that he originally did for the Bobcat when the issue of 9411's replacement came up....they are $9.95 for 2 of them.....just tape them in place....you can leave them clear or paint them.....

We fly off grass most of time up here so for the last 8 years we have learned to beef the gear plates, BEFORE they crack.....

We add 1.5 mm Carbon Fiber plate to the top of the nosegear plate and 3.0 mm to the bottom and then tap into it for the retract machine screws.....no need for blind nuts.....

For the mains, we just added a lower plate(closest to the top of the wing, also 3.0mm and we tap into that again for the mounting screws.....no room for a top plate facing the retract....it elevates the cylinder enough to hit the former it rests under, so just gonna put some resin on the wood to keep it from getting soft on wet grass or asphalt.....

Thanks for tips on flying and on preliminary C.G from you and Ken.....

I can post pictures of our C/F plates if its O.K. with you....don't want to hijack your thread.......

Tom/Dave/Bob
Fond du Lac Viper Builders