Brought mine out on Sunday to test fly it and thought I was in a keystone cops re-run. I loaded the plane in the car along with my practice plane and headed to the field. Half way there I realized I had forgotten my fuel, not likely anyone would have some to barrow so turned it around and got the fuel. While there I went through what I needed in my mind and when satisfied I headed back out. Got to the same place in the drive and realized I had forgotten the miller starter, guess I hand start it this time, and continued on. Got to the field and started putting the Zero together. While manually locking the LG down I realized the valve was in the retracted position. So I had to turn on the radio to open the release line. While closed when I manually deployed the LG the first lock would pop off from the air pressure. So I turned on the radio and hit the switch but the LG acted the same. Take the wing back off only to find the retract pushrod (on the wing) is bottoming out on the fuel tank (on the fuse). So I bend the pushrod out of the way and manually push the spool to the deploy position, no retracts today, and button her back up. Roll it out to the flight line and fuel it, then wait my turn to fly. When my turn come I walk up to the plane and it is dripping fuel out the back of the wing. I defuel it and pull it aside to let it air out.

Checking it out at home I find that the retract pushrod did not stop till it hit the wheel collar. That put about 1/8 inch of the .042 dia pushrod through the tank. I’ve been hoping to run it in the back yard this week but the weather has not co-operated.

Some shoe goo and a screw and moving the retract valve mechanism back 2.5 inches on the wing and away we go. Hopefully this weekend.

As for giant scale retracts, the only pair I have that did not require a stint at the local model shop where from Sierra precision.

Joe