I replaced the F/G main wing tube with a C/F piece purchased at the Toledo Show. Cannot remember the supplier, but has close to the same wall thickness as the original. Took a bit of work to get it perfectly uniform to slide easily. More than strong enough.

Had a friend built a new one piece elevator for the plane.

I'm curious. What is the plastic piece in the center of the fuse in the first pic?

I plan to work on mine after the Texan is finished. Definitely reducing elevator area and still deciding on flaps.

Also, searching for an appropriate retractable tailwheel rig.

That the tail wheel setup.

All I need is two elevator servo and landing gears.

Ah, I see now. I had moved the steering arm to the top on mine first thing to have everything inside the fuse and have a better angle on the steering springs.

I guess I forgot what the original setup looked like.

trying to post some pics these were taken in oct at chino valley AZ. at an electric fly . Jon Barns took the pics he does awesome work !

Very nice.

I have been trying to figure out some way to mod the original tailwheel rig to flip into the fuse and lock up and down as it has good spring and travel compared to some retracts I looked at, (none there, in fact). Should be a challenge once I can put it on the table and spend more time at it.

I have always liked the way the tail wheel works on this plane ...would be nice to have it retract.

Made a mess in the Living room last night (Thank gawd Im single).

Still have alot of work to do.

keep us posted ..remember we need pics to prove you made a mess.

What E-Flite landing gears did you guy use?

60-120 Mains only:

http://www.e-fliterc.com/Products/De...ProdID=EFLG400

Be advise that as with all other servoless retracts, they do require significant current when they start a cycle so a good power source is recommended.

That what I need it.

I'm going to run two 1450 mah battery for the receiver.

I have my systems powered from a 2300MAh LiFE pack, while the Rx is off a 4cell NiMH. That way no chances of brownout on the receiver.

I will be running Life Battery for the receiver and 5 cell NIMH for the Ignition Module.

I have the Bear on the build table and although trying several different retracts have not come up with anything that will fit and give some form of suspension. Not sure if that is required, but will keep working on it.

H/K sells a really nice servoless. Unfortunately, ordering from the US warehouse is out of the question due to costs to get it across the border:

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...dproduct=42657

Disconnected the elevator linkages now the cover is off and again ran into some fun. Want to pull both off and cut them down to more scale appearance and my hinge work is so tight cannot easily get in there to cut them loose. May have to sacrifice them all and replace with new pin hinges again once able to slice the remainders out of the stab and elevators. Have not decided best method yet, but necessary to do a good job. Once off and cut to shape will have to sand down to the proper taper at the trailing edge before recovering.

That brings up another decision: Do I retain the original elevators or go with built up. Not a lot of flex with stock, but built up are generally lighter and stronger.

Regardless of which method, the original linkages will definitely be discarded. Far too soft and allow a lot of flexing between linkage and control surface. I have different setups to work with and will choose the most rigid once ready to go back together.

One other project will be rearranging the internals to give more room to install and remove the wing retainer nuts. Hopefully can cut some weight down at the same time as I found isolating the receiver on rubber mounts unnecessary.

If I still have enough UltraCote left over will be looking into flaps.

As I am still looking at a tail retract decided to put that aside and start something else.

Halfway through the elevator mod. Had to dremel the hinges, then cut them out of both the elevators and stab. What fun. Also fabbed up some new larger diameter linkages that should be much stronger than stock. Lacked the special bits to lock that size into the stab and elevator, so tapered the end of the wire and with a bit of heating and effort was able to enlarge them enough to work.The key was to only go in a bit and then remove and cool the plastic to let it set to size.

Cut approximately 5/8" in from the trailing edge and sanded them back down to get the tailing edges relatively tight. A bit thicker than stock since I found they were built up, (what I had thought to do anyway) and worried I would sand the sheeting down too thin, but should not affect aerodynamics. Awaiting the G/G to set on some of the hinges and will get at recovering the elevators as that progresses.

Have a pic of the difference between stock and modded elevator and will take and post some more as this goes on. Just have to remember to program some extra deflection when all back together.

She flies. After the third flight the landing gear block broke.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JlkKyU4s1Y

Great so see the vid. What did yours end up total weight?

Those gear mounts were, to put it mildly-disgusting. The wood was soft and the bonding to the rest of the structure lacking. This was the reason I opted to rebuild that entire area before the maiden. All the bent/broken pins later and still strong and solid.

ps. Nice to see it operate on pavement. Wish we had that at our field as things are much different with those long legs.

The plane weight in about 11.5 lbs.

Everyone at the field loved the plan. Just suck it broke. Back on the work bench.

I had the same reaction back in September when I brought it with me to my friends turbine event. All the pilots with their more expensive machines could not wait till I tried it from pavement.

Pranged mine on Sat trying to take off ,it was torque rolling to the left .I should have hit the rudder ,but I think I released the up and added some aileron to get it level .it set back on the ground and ground about 1" off the three blade prop.i added up to get it off the prop and chopped the power it got in the air about 3 ft and then came down hard on the gear and of course pulled the right gear out and slid to a stop ..really bummed me out but started fixing it today .had to do this on the F-8F too .

Sounds like it just did not want to fly that day.

I just finished the elevators yesterday and have both adjusted to match. Will post some pics later of the final product.

O/K, here are the pics as promised. As you can see from the last pic they now match the full size planform much better. Just hope they are effective enough through the speed range. You can also see much more detail of the elevator control setup with the wheel mount removed

That larger diameter feed out to the elevators now flexes approx 10% of what it had previously. With a 133 oz/in digital servo things should go where I ask.

NOTE: The sleeve you see over the servo wire is to protect it where it gets tied down to structure and inside skin.

After playing around with some small retracts and suspension struts no way to fit what I have here without major mods, including some pulleys to route the rudder cables outboard. That would not be difficult with some of the heli stuff, but cutting up the current mount and hogging out the cover to allow for swing was a bit more than I wanted. Will keep looking and for now will bite the bullet and paint what hangs out with fuel-proof white.

that's a very clever way to do it ,I also trimed my elev down a bit and it had been flying just fine .not sure at all why it nosed over im pretty sure I must have dumb thumb it somewhere along the take off run