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Old 01-31-2008, 06:46 PM
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da Rock
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Default RE: Carbon fiber vs Aluminum landing gear


ORIGINAL: P51p

Hello,
I am thinking about replacing the aluminum landing gear on my goldberg 67" edge 540 with a carbon fiber landing gear. The gear got bent a few too many times and now only takes a little effort to loose its shape. Is the carbon fiber gear much stronger than the aluminum gear to with stand a few hard landings without breaking or am I just wasting my $$ on a carbon fiber gear?
Any info would be very much appreciated.


Graham


The real problem you're going to have is finding any replacement gear to fit. If you find both aluminum and CF, you're lucky.

If you find any, check out it's specs to see what weight airplane it's supposed to support. If your airplane weight is near the max for that gear, you won't be gaining much using it. Keep looking.

Your real solution is to take the measurements off your original and simply find some replacements that match.... or come close..... and that will support the weight. If one of them is CF, it usually works somewhat better than aluminum. It will flex (if it's specs match your weight) enough and it'll be a bit less prone to fail. However, it also will cause more damage to the fuselage in the event of a damaging landing or crash. Everything has a trade off.

BTW, it would be nice if us modelers could decide details like whether or not to use CF or aluminum and then bop on down to the LHS and pick whatever we decided to buy. But most times you are lucky to find a replacement at all. Much less have a choice.