Brian,

I've only got about 5 flights on my Rascal but the landing gear seems fine and pretty sturdy so far. king_arthur1953 added some LANDING GEAR REINFORCEMENT STANDOFFS to his stock gear and it looked pretty nice. It came from B&B Specialties.

http://bennettbuilt.com/page7.htm

Brian We have a fairly rough field also. Last year soy beans were growing in it. This year it is a flying field. I also had a lot of problems with the tuning on the G26EI before Ralph worked on it and that resulted in several dead stick landings many of them in high weeds and crop fields because I couldn't make it back to the field. It was a fact of flying for me to take the LG to the shop Monday and straighten it out. I modified the gear by adding a horizontal member but that didn't help much other than transfer the stress to the fuselage and that resulted to me having to reinforce the LG support in the floor of the fuselage. Here is the cross member I added to the LG
Here is the reinforcing I did.


So then came the Bennet Built LG reinforcement mod. I chose the kit using the 3/16 music wire.
LANDING GEAR REINFORCEMENT STANDOFFS
http://bennettbuilt.com/page7.htm

These things rock. Here are a couple of pics of them installed and painted.



Added benefit. A couple of weeks ago I lost fire to the plug on an aggressive climb out after takeoff about 20 or so feet off the ground. I was able to get her leveled out before she hit the ground but the left side gear took the brunt of the impact. It bent it pretty good but it also absorbed the shock and there was absolutely no damage anywhere else. I am really happy with this mod to the LG.

I got my new True-Turn 3 1/2" spinner in and I had to make a choke handle. Heading out tomorrow to get some more time on the Rascal if the weather will cooperate. It's suppose to be in the mid 40's with 10-15 mph winds tomorrow. Not your best flying conditions.

WOW. Thanks Ron for taking the time to do all that. That is "very" helpful. Your quite a craftsman.


Zippy, That looks good. Brian

Looks like cold weather has set in hear so anymore flights on the Rascal will have to wait until Spring. Any of you guys cold weather flyers? Looking for a Winter project to start on.

I handle the cold well. Since I work in a refrigerated plant and maintained sub zero freezers for many years along with winters in New Jersey for 24 years, I became rather accustomed to the cold. Although it doesn't get all that cold here the wind is the big issue in the winter time.

Ron,

I hope you get lots of flying days in this winter. I have a lot of my right thumb missing from an accident years ago and it doesn't like the cold weather. Since I fly with my thumbs it makes flying not very enjoyable when I can't feel my thumb and it's hurting. I'll just have to wait until Spring.

I understand. Except its half my brain that's usually numb

Any one do floats on a Rascal. I would like to find some for mine. I have no idea what size or where? Thanks. Brian

Brian,

Take a look at these Sig floats that are designed for the Rascal 40 & 110.

http://www.sigmfg.com/IndexText/SIGFK003ARF.html

Thanks for that. I'll sure be getting a set of those. We / our club has 2 float flys every summer. On another note I took my wheel pants off and will only install them for fly-ins. Our rough model field is breaking the corners of the pants as fast as I repair them. I installed a set of 5 inch wheels and painted them half white and half blue. I did not like the looks at first, but it kinda grows on you. What a bunch of great info this thread has been for me. Thanks again Zippi and all you great friends that give your thoughts and ideas. Brian

Well Sunday was a very interesting day. It was pleasantly cool around 50 degrees but the wind was very gusty and blowing directly across the field. I ain't afraid of no cross wind so up she went. I had about 15 minute flight time in and as I was approaching the field I noticed something kind of sticking up above the left wing. My first thought was that a wing strut had come loose so I started lining up for final to land since it was so windy. I didn’t want to fly without the wing strut. The plane was extremely sluggish to control movement especially on the roll axis and I didn't even come close to lining up properly on the field so I added power to make another attempt. As I flew by the field it became obvious that it was the left aileron that had came off and was hanging by the control rod. Now I'm puckering. With the cross wind condition and only 1 aileron I could see a terrible mishap in the very near future. So I thought about how well the Rascal floats in a head wind and called out for a clear field and brought the big girl in straight across the field into the head wind. There is a hill running the length of the field on the side opposite the side the pit is on between us and the soy bean field. I floated her over the hill with a near 0 ground speed and sat her down with a rollout of about 3 feet. Whew what a relief!!!!!!!! Well I already had a small buckle in the left wing caused when the wingtip hit the ground several weeks ago and now the hinges came loose and the right wing has a collapsed section in the sheeting at the leading edge where I held on too hard when I accidently hit the throttle stick during warm up when I sat the radio down...... Duh. So off to the magic repair service it is going this week while I am out of town. Maybe it will be calmer next week and all the CA hinges will stay in place.

what a save,that is the best news of the day. I guess we need to check everything, everytime we go up you never know! frank

Ron,

Your having a lot of close calls with your Rascal dude. Were the hinges loose and came out or did they break? If you need another one, the cheapest place I've seen is [link=http://www.chiefaircraft.com/rcmsec/Models/PowerAirplanes/SIG/Rascal110.html]Chief Aircraft[/link] for $379.95 plus shipping. I got mine for $375.00 and that included tax and shipping from my LHS. I've only had a few flights on mine and already I can't wait for Spring .

The Rascal is fine. Just some cosmetic stuff to repair and glue the hindges back in. I suspect since it was the 1st time I used CA hindges that I didn't get enough glue on them. It will be ready Sunday. I tend to push the envelope which tends to lead to things happening. Funny how that works. When I can fly my Rascal like Eric I will be happy.

Any new Rascal 110's going together over the holidays ???

I have started modding the Rascal wing with Fowler flaps while I am waiting for the AMR Trainer 50 and the RCS RV-50 to show. I love the way the Rascal slowed down and landed with the flaperons but I did not like the loss of aileron authority when the flaps were deployed so I decided to mod the wing and add flaps. First I stripped all the covering off. After doing that I found several stress fractures on the web fillers between the main spars and several ribs split front to back. Nothing was missing or out of place just split. This could not be seen with the covering on even through the transparent red. So I used thin CA and glued her up then went on to the flap project. I started 10mm from the fuselage and removed a section 70mm deep all the way to the aileron. I added webbing and a 3/8 filler behind the webbing to support the hinges. I will be using Robart hinge points install from the bottom to allow the flaps to drop down and back so the leading edge of the flap is exposed. They will nest up to the wing when closed so the leading edge will not be exposed. I have the cutout completed on the right wing half.

Looks good Ron. How did the area where the strut screws to the wing look?

That area was good. I think that was all that was holding the one wing together. I don't know if the damage was from me or from shipping.

I have completed the flap cut out on the left wing. Next I will build mounts for the servos.

shipping i had two from tower that had the same damage, still flying the second one and dont want to cut open the monocote both were crush somehow, thanks frank

Both wings are now complete including the servo trays and servo installation. Next step is to build the flaps.

I have the flaps roughed in. I will shape them tomorrow.

I finished shaping and sanding the Flaps. I will hinge them then add the filler to the top of the wing to hide the flap when it is retracted.