bignasdy,

Been following your post on the Hellcat thread. Sounds like you are really enjoying that plane. I am hoping to maiden my P-51 this weekend. She is all set up and ready to go. I have been reading every thread that I can find the last week or so. Let me highlight what I have read in about a thousand posts.

Gear, gear, and more gear issues! Some guys fly the stock gear and have no problems. Some guys have the gear collapse on them in the first few flights. Some guys have literally destroyed their planes due to gear failures causing a cart wheel down the runway. My take on it is either shore up the standard gear or go with pneumatic gear like Robart.

Standard gear fix:
There is an interesting post on the first couple of pages of the ARF thread here that is called Hanger 9 gear problems, or something close to that. There is pictures of a simple little mod to add a plywood support and a stronger and longer bolt to the rotating part in the gear mechanism. Apparently this takes out a lot of the wobble. The other mod that seems to work really well for guys is to change out the struts form the standard wire to 3/16" music wire. This also makes the gear much more stable, and keeps it from bending out of shape to the point where the gear will not fit back into the wheel wells. A really good thread to find is the Hanger 9 Miss America thread. Just type that whole phrase in the search box and search by rank not date. It should be one of the first ones to come up. This talks about the thicker strut mod in detail.

Upgraded mechanical and Pneumatic strut fix:

Several different brands are talked about on the Hanger 9 Miss America thread I refered to above. Seems most guys used Spring Air brand pneumatics because they drop in without much cutting. Several guys used Robarts, and there is a couple of links for some high grade mechanical gear as well.

Other than that guys seem to love the plane. Seems that 4 1/2" back is a better CG than the recommended 4 3/4" from what I have gathered. Guys also recommend reinforcing the firewall.

My plan is to do the 2 mods to the stock gear, and see how it handles. If it there is any question at all about the stability, I am going for the Robart upgrade. There isn't any feedback yet on how she handles with both of the simple stock gear modifications done. That would be awesome if this would do the trick!

Please let us know what your take is on the stock gear once you get your Mustang. I like your keep it simple and fly the wings off of her approach to the Hellcat!

Adam