I have a Laser Models Laser 3D using a Saito 72. It's a great flying very capable model but I fly off a rough grass field and the original wire main gear is not holding up. It is breaking the wood within the fuse. I think the stock gear is a poor design, but that's another story.

I want to replace the stock gear with a conventional main landing gear - the formed aluminum or composite type. Has any one else done this? What did you use?

I've looked at the Dubro and Goldberg products but they seem kind of heavy.

Thanks!

We have a range of standard glass-filled nylon gear that may help you out.
E-mail for details.
Ray
<[email protected]>

You can replace the gear with anything you want just lay a little lite ply in the fues bottom and go with it. IMO the laser 3D fues is designed great. I have built a couple of them. The tail is the only weakness of this airplane. The counterbalances are a bit large and the wood is a bit weak so it can cause a massive problem. But I never really had a problem with the gear on any of my lasers and I too fly off grass. Its an easy solution, hand launch and catch when in a hover to land.

LOL.... Thanks. I picked up a set of BJ's formed aluminum main gear at my LHS today. I'll add a little light ply as you say and bolt it on.

I guess I'm just unlucky with the Laser. I have lost an elevator half three times because of grass catching the counterbalance. The Laser flys quite well on just one elevator half with the other flapping in the breeze. I rebuilt the elevator and counterbalance with several hardwood sticks and it has held up so far. I lost the original ply engine mount twice. I now have a metal mount. I lost the firewall once. I now have a 3/16 ply firewall with hardwood triangle stock reinforcing it at the fuse. None of this was the result of crashes or hard landings, just normal every-day abuse. I'd blame it all on poor kit building skills or lousy flying, but I have had no problem with any of my other 5 kit-built models, some of them with hundreds of flights.

You might want to try REALLY low rates on take off that way the counterbalances wont get caught up in the stuff. The only problem I had was the tail exploding in air. That was due to the poor quality wood they included with the kit and the counter balances being too big. I reduced the size of the counter balances and the problem went away. If you think it flys good on one elevator you should fly it with zero elevator and no stab I managed to land the airplane on the runway like this. I had spoilerons programmed in and used them as elevators. The landing wasnt pretty but all that happened was a broken prop.

UPDATE:

I installed the new landing gear and flew the Laser today. The new gear seemed to be a big improvement. I got in 3 or 4 flights (tankfulls).

I was just sort of fooling around doing slow inverted figure 8s when I was mid-aired by my buddy flying a 60 sized Four Star. The prop of the fourstar hit the fuse of the Laser just in front of the tail feathers and completely separated the tail from the rest of the Laser. There was a burst of fulttering pieces of balsa and monokote. The front part of the fuse came down like a rocket propelled lawn dart and the tail feather fluttered gracefully to the ground. I had to dig my Saito 72 out of the dirt. The engine mount (metal) had broken, and the fuse was in too many pieces to count. The fourstar wasn't damaged except for a broken prop.

This is the first mid-air that anyone at the field had ever seen. It was really quite spectacular, I have to admit. The Laser is history. It was a nice flying very capable plane, but seemed cursed from the start.

Sometimes its not meant to be.

Sad to hear, mid-airs are the worst to take.
Still, clears a bit of floor space for a new plane, eh?

I just hope my laser doesnt end the same way when its done. I'm doin the same as you and installin a non-stock U/C.

Oddly, I didn't take it badly. I was more amazed than angry or disappointed. Midairs are such rare freak events.

I would like to build another Laser 3D except I understand they are discontinued? At least Tower no longer carries them.

If you are still building I do recommend that you put some hardwood sticks in the elevators. If I remember corretly I simply replaced the 1/4" x 1/2" basa sticks that run along the hing line of the elevators with hardwood of the same size.

I'm still at it, fuse and wings both half built. Im gona use the stock wood on the tail, but there's a lot of carbon reinforcement going in to hold it together, there's three up here with the same and their strong enough, apart from the balances dragging in the grass. Mine was 2nd hand, but the UK stores still advertise them new, so they might still be in production.

I think when my mid-air happend, it took the wind outa me too much to be angry. Plus, i was in a rush to get to work, so the other guy got all the stick afterwards.