I have built the A-26 from Wing Mfg in the last couple of years. I made a number of changes in the plane. First, the retracts: I used Hobbico retracts in the nacelles, although they take a lot of adjustment to take the wobble out of them. I moved the struts to a position about 1/2 inch behind the CG location shown. I made a "gear plate" of 1/4" aircraft ply, as wide as the nacelle and maybe 6" long. The gear was mounted to the rear end of this plate, and a HiTec retract servo was mounted to the front, with a short pushrod directly to the gear tab. The entire plate was made to be adjusted outside of the nacelle, and then installed with screws so that it could be removed for more adjustment later if needed. Pay attention to making a left and right plate, etc. and if necessary, reverse one servo so that both gear go up at the same time (don't ask me how I know this is necessary.....)

A 1/2" dia. "rocket tube" from the LHS was built into my wing before sheeting to carry the servo leads to the fuselage, plus other items covered below.

I used an MK nose gear retract. I found myself on the horns of another dilema--the two wing retract servos joined a Y yoke which plugged into the receiver. Where to plug the nose retract? I plugged it into a 6th channel, and then mixed it to operate off the retract channel as the master channel. It works fine.

You will notice there is little room for the gas tanks in the nacelles, and even less with my gear plate. And the tank was tipped badly as well. I had planned early on to use a Perry P-30 pump on each engine, with a 16 oz. tank mounted roughly on the CG in the fuselage. Two klunk lines were used in the tank, one for each engine, and the lines ran through the rocket tube and connected to the Perry pump, which was mounted just behind the firewall and behind each engine head. A small hole was made in the side of the nacelle to access the pump adjustment screw if necessary. As you probably know, the pumps require that you tap the crankcase for the pressure line which feeds the pump. The third line on the tank was the vent and overflow line, no muffler pressure is used when using the pumps.

Although I have used eight or ten pumps in other airplanes and am familiar with them, I ran into another problem which I had not encountered before. The engines, broken in on my bench, would run only 1/2 turn open on the NV, and were extremely sensitive to the setting. Adjusting the pumps for less pressure did not help. I called Conley (now the pump mfgr) and was advised that the pumps were overpowering those "small" engines, and a return line would be necessary to carry the excess fuel not required by the carb back to the tank. A "T" fitting next to the carb was installed to bleed off the excess fuel, and that line went back to the tank. Only now I was out of tank lines, having used all three already. I found that I could heat a music wire with a torch and burn a hole in the DuBro tank, on the "step" of the tank, and install two pressure nipples there to receive the return lines. I don't need to tell you what a plumbing nightmare this is when I go to put the wing on and fly, but it now works flawlessly, and the airplane is fast, like the full scale airplane was.

Excuse the length of this epistle, but I hope I have answered some questions for you. I might add that air retracts could also be installed and perhaps with far fewer problems, but I have had good luck with mechanicals over the years so stayed with them.

Clair