I just had a great new expereince with one of my older AAs. After all the fun of cannards, wing tip mods, nose weights and stuff I decided that one of the things I had not done is played with wheels. So I used the paper clip and button method to make a set. Actually the buttons didn't work so well - first you have to have ones you can drill really little holes throgh the center and not break through the already existing holes. Then it turned out that the buttons I had were not thick enough to give good stability on the wire axel. So I made little wheels out of hard wood and, while leaving the bit around the axel about 1/8 inch think, sanded the rest down to about 1/16th or less. This lightened them up a bit to (they were too heavy and even with nose weights off the plane nosed over).

Placement on the under carrage is important also. Too far forward and it's too nose heavy. Too far back and the nose will tip over with thrust. I streightened the clip out and then bent it with a "V" in the center before I bent the legs down. this allowed me to have a good flat surface to tape down so the whole thing would not just rotate backward on takeoff or landing. I used double face tape between the body and wire and black duct tape over the top. That was very secure. The ends of the axes are bent up to keep the wheels on. I suppose the hardest part for most of you would be getting a drill bit small enough to just clear the wire size. I am a wood worker and do some suff that requires #50 -60 wire bits.

Anyway - i was never able to actully take off on the wheels. It was just too hard to get a smooth enough surface and the plane always twisted around in circles. But with hand launch it flew great, looked a lot more fun then without wheels and made greart touch-and-gos and landings.