Flew my new U Can Do for the first time last Saturday. It flies great. But if you don't grease the landing you may have the same problem that someone else already referred to. On the fourth landing I got a little bounce, about two feet high, and it came down and broke off the entire landing gear. The gear was installed on a 1/4 inch thick piece of balsa that was only 2 3/4 by 1 inch and was barely glued in place. Of course, when the landing gear folded it folded up into the wing on both sides so that the wheel pants went completely thru the under and upper sides of the wing coverings. However, no major structural damage so it will be ready to fly again in a few days.

I had the same problem with my U Can Do 46. Mine failed on a soft landing and destroyed covering as wheel pants penetrated wing. I beefed up the landing gear attachment by doing the following:

- mounted a piece of 1" hardwood behind the factory mount
- glued the hardwood reinforcement to fuse side panels and wing side
- put blind nuts on hardwood reinforcing wood
- installed longer gear attachment screws to reach the new blind nuts

I also removed wheel pants to limit damage to wing covering if it happens again. I haven't flow it since the repair.

I hope we can have a 3400 post thread about this.

Thanks for the info. I am just a few days away from assembling mine with a Saito 72 on it. I certainly will beef up the landing gear block, which is something I pretty much make a requirement on all ARF's.

I do have a couple of questions. What engine did you use?...and... Did it end up being tail heavy?

I used a Saito .72. Pull Pull Rudder (hitec 605) w/servo mounted in the throttle tray, throttle mounted in front of compartment on its side. 1100 mah batt mounted on top of fuel tank.

I've flown mine for over a season now, no problems what so ever. I drag the tail beofre the mains touch down all the time and have yet to break the mains. I've even flown through the edge of a tree ripping a 12" hole in the wing.....luckily no structual damage. I've got a Saito 100 in mine.......gotta love the power.

I would rate this ARF as top notch.




Neo

I saw one last week that had the landing gear tore off. This fellow beefed his up in the same way, and had to replace the covering from where the wheel pants pierced the wing. One of his most noticeable mods in that he added some "flying wires" so to speak that connect the axels to I'm guessing the firewall. Basically it spreads the impact of a hard landing up to another part of the fuselage where it's the strongest. I work well to keep the wires from bending too, as they can't spread too far, and of course can't be forced backward. Works pretty well from what I've seen.

I installed an OS 46FX on it and did not have to add any weight. Recommended balance is 4 to 6 inches from LE - mine came in at about 5 inches.

There are three ways the landing gear mounts could fail, in shear, in compression, and in both or what you could call torsion. These failures sound like they are mostly torsion. Do you fly on a grass field? I would bring it in as slow as possible, forward speed is probably the major problem. If they are torsion failures, then putting a wire forward of the gear tied into the fire wall would do the trick. Adding additional blocks forward and rearward of the gear would also do the trick. Putting in a lower gear would also help, as long as the prop doesn’t hit the ground, would be a minor improvement. I am just finishing up my u-can-do 60, I fly from a paved runway, and don’t see a problem, but you never know when you may have a dead stick and not make back to the runway. If you don’t want to wrestle placing reinforcement in side the fuselage, adding light ply, say 3/32 under the outside between the gear and fuselage, not sure how wide, but wider it is better, it will distribute the torsions load across the glued area. The area in front of the gear will be in tension, and the area (very little) behind the gear will be in compression.

Had 46 size for nearly a year now. Got a OS .91 fs on it. I've broke off the tail wheel, broke about 4 inches off the end of the right aileron, nearly snapped the whole plane in half from a dead stall around 10 feet up, had to dead stick it over a dozen times and never had a problem with the main landing gear. Bout to install my 3rd tail wheel as the spring on the current one is really worn out.

My UCD 46 has an old italian Sper tigre 65 on it.
I took a different tack, I use nylon bolts #8-32 I believe, so the belly doesn't get ripped. Have only broken them once since, and I fly rough grass. OUTSTANDING slowwwwww landings with about 3 degrees down flaperons.

Best solution to fuselage failures due to landing gear is mount the landing gear with nylon bolts. They shear easily during a hard landing and won't cause the mount to be torn from the fuse. Always carry extra screws of course.