I have a Hangar 9 Alpha trainer with Evolution 46 and 3 blade prop. The grass is thick but cut relatively short at my club's field. Still, taxiing is a pain. The front gear flexes and the prop bites into the grass throwing it all over my plane. It looks like a weedeater afterwards with grass all over it. Not only is it a pain to clean but it kills the engine. I am considering getting bigger wheels to raise it up a little higher. Any suggestions?

WCB,
two things you can do here, 1.) go to the hobby shop, and take the front gear with you, pick up a new front gear leg, but an 1 1/2"-2' longer, and of course the same dia.
2.) and the better option- go to the hobby shop, and pick up a set of wheels that are bigger. The Alpha will carry some more weight without a problem, if in doubt, get the Dave Brown foam wheels, they are light, and you can go a few sizes bigger without weight penalty.
A good idea with these, if you already haven't use loctite on the screws that hold the front gear to the firewall, they have a tendency to vibrate loose.

Jetts

Jetts,
Thanks. I will head to the hobby shop tomorrow and hook up some foam wheels. I'm glad I didn't fly tonite. I just practiced my taxiing skills and made some up and down the field "drives." Afterwards (while cleaning grass off the plane) I discovered that 2 gear mount screws were completely gone up front and the other two were loose. This may have contributed to the over flexing. At any rate had I decided to fly they would have no doubt failed on one of my less than perfect landings and plowed a furrough with the nose down the runway.

I'd suggest bigger wheels all around. While a longer nose gear might work, it will also increase your angle of attack possibly causing your plane to get airborne before it's ready. This could result in a tip stall.

For our grass field, which is usually mowed to 2" or less, we recommend 3 inch wheels. Your situation sounds like 4 inch, very light weight foam would be better.

Good luck,
Dennis-

Just go for the bigger wheels and that should solve a lot of the problems. Our field occasionally gets bumpy and beat up, especially in the winter with all the freezing and thawing every day. Most of the time if you get bigger wheels, that are light like DBCherry said, you problems will become a thing of the past.

WCB

I would recommend to go with at least 3" wheels. And don't forget to check ballance of the plane after you change them.

I did two things that totally solved the problem. I put all 3.5" wheels on and put a 12X4 APC prop on it. It makes the alpha into a little "bush" plane. Pops off big grass in about twenty feet.

I'll second the prop change idea. That 3-bladed prop is really not very efficient. Just about any reasonable size conventional 2-blade prop will give you more thrust and get you off the ground faster. 12x4 would be good, or an 11x5 for more ground clearance, or even a 10x7 works well. Two of my students have your setup with 10x7APC props, and man, those planes get off the ground in a hurry.

get larger LOW BOUNCE wheels, and a double strut nosegear. also, rubber band your rear gear together so it is tought and bounces back into place, but not so tight it is bending.

Two thumbs up for the Spaceclam's recommendation of the double strut nosegear – more commonly known as Fults strut.

Just last Sunday I had an accident with my HobbiStar [] – regular nosegear strut snapped on landing. Not just snapped – at the bend point it split!!! [&o] Everybody on the field came to see it. Nobody, even our veterans, saw anything like this before (I might post picture of this thing later).

Lucky me the strut was only damage. So I ran to a hobby shop and without second thought got myself a set of Fults. Little bit more expensive, but to me it a must have, especially for the trainer.

Have a good flying!

I agree the double strut gear is cool and can really help.

However, be a bit careful about making the gear too stiff, as the energy on a hard landing has to go somewhere. I'd rather bend nose the gear than remove the firewall for example. A good strut, single or double, should have a good spring to help with this though.

I've also never heard of a nose strut breaking. Sounds like it was defective materials.

Thanks everyone for the help. Lots of good suggestions.

betseen the grass field and the oversized low bounce wheel, that will act as a spring in it's own. if you hit hard enough that you break the firewall off, a spring on your nosegear would do you no good as it would be bent completely back. on my trainer, i once hit the nose so hard that it bent back and but 13 dents on the motom of my fuse. the engine mount was fine, the firewall undamaged. i looked through it, no cracks. i just mixed some epoxy and thinned it out with rubbing alcohol enough that it soaked into the wood. no problems.

As promised. Attached are the pictures of the snapped strut.
The split you see is "as-is" - the way I founded the wheel after the landing.

I think this is an agreement among those who saw this - "it must be a defective material".

bad joint. probably uneven heating, or something contaminated the metal. it looks like it was cut then ripped apart.