I want to remove the blind nuts on the landing gear of my showtime so i can use nylon bolts for easy break-away. How can I remove the blind nuts in the fuselage so I can put larger ones in? Do I heat the nuts with a soldering iron to break down the glue?

If the nuts are nut buried in glue they should pop out when you insert a screw and tap it with a hammer.

I flew nearly 10 Gallons of glow trough that plane...I still have it and the backup I bought , just before I moved completely to gas.

You really don't need to do that. The LG is fine and the Gear Plate is fine. Just fly it... it floats-in for landings.

If you feel you are not ready, just keep flying your old plane until you feel you ARE ready. The ST wil really teach you how to fly.

Enjoy!!

I had a small mishap with the first one and tore the entire landing gear area out. It was windy and prob should not have been flying to begin with. I want to make sure I can try and prevent ripping out the bottom of the fuse again.

Dave has the right idea.

Now if they're glued in, you'll need to partly thread a screw into the blind nut and heat it up with a soldering gun, then tap it out.

Let us know how it turns out. (no pun intended )

I have removed many blind nuts and have never had to heat them. Just thread a screw part way in and give it a light tap.
That said I have to go with agexpert on this one. My showtime is probably one of the easiest planes to land that I have ever flown.
It is a case of six of one half dozen of the other. If you go to nylon your gear could pop off on a hard landing that it would have survived otherwise. Plus the possible damage to the wings, fuselage sides or tail feathers from your gear bouncing around the plane.
My opinion? leave the gear alone and avoid flying in weather conditions you can't handle.

I was just being cautious because making repairs SUCK! Thanks!

If you really feel that you want to change, why not just replace the bolts with nylon bolts. Probably find them at Home Depot or Lowe's. ENJOY !!! RED

I thought the oem size would be too thin to really hold up.

What size are they and how many are there?

Why can't you just use nylon bolts that screw into your installed blind nuts? Why would removing the blind nuts provide any added benefit? Nylon bolts will shear no matter how they are held to the fuselage. I know because I've had that happen a couple of times.

CGr

CGretired is right on the money. Just screw nylon bolts into the blind nuts. It will accomplish what you want it to without a bunch of extra work.

Ken

There are two bolts...and i dont really know the size. They are thinner than 10/32 bolts we use to hold on spinners.

They are probably #6 or #8 bolts. If you replace them with nylon the same size, you will almost gurantee that they will rip off on every landing.

If you go with nylon, you will want to use two or three 1/4-20 bolts.

If it were me, I'd make sure the gear mount is epoxied in well and reinforced, leave the metal bolts, and work on my landings.

When you come across one/several epoxied in tight, you'll need to heat it before tapping out, otherwise you will take out more than the blind nut. [:@]

Last night i probably added a pound of epoxy to the entire landing gear area in the fuse and also reinforced with tri-stock. What caused me to rip out my landing gear was a total mishap anyway. It does float right in but I wanted a bit more insurance. I guess we cant expect to make these things crash proof. I appreciate all of the experience you guys have passed on here. Im sure i will be able to use the knowledge in the future. THANKS!

You may not have to use the same holes/locations. I'm not familiar with your gear but you MIGHT be able to drill a pair of new holes near the existing ones without weakening anything (evaluate first) and tap the plane side for 1/4-20 nylon/plastic screws. Don't worry about installing new blind nuts for them. Plywood will need to be a MINIMUM of 3/16 and 1/4 preferred for a good bite.

If it has that much epoxy in there, you may, if done carefully, drill and tap the epoxy too. It's soft enough to take a tap but solid enough to hold. Or, pull a blind nut right into the epoxy.

When I was in training, my Nexstar had a bit of a run-in after landing.. with a berm along side the runway. It veered over and smacked into it. It tore out the main gear on the left side. If you are familiar with the Nexstar, it has a plastic gizmo that the gear slides into and clicks into place by tabs on the plastic mount. That broke. They (Hobbico) stated that it was a safety feature but also says that if you want to replace it, you have to buy a whole replacement fuselage. Ah.. a catch for sure.

I ended up putting a small piece of 1/4" ply backing and poured epoxy in there to hold the gear in place. The gear was never going to come out as it did with the original setup, but neither was it going to break any time soon. And if it did, well, then it WOULD be time for a new fuselage.

Moral.. don't overbuild or you will end up tearing out the bottom of the fuselage. Remember that every chain is only as strong as the weakest link... ie... and all that building around balsa, even if teathered to ply, will give at the weakest point if hit hard enough.

CGr.

I changed to nylon bolts on my avistar a while back...but the set up was diff. No blindnuts. I epoxied SIG wood blocks that were made for 1/4-20 bolts in the fuse. Worked Like a charm.

Yeah, ro... that works great. My Four Star 40, if I recall, had a bolt on wing in which the bolts went into a theaded piece of hardwood. (one of them did.. think I recall it being the Four Star, though.. I've since sold it so I can't be sure).

CGr.

Replaced the landing gear bolts on a 60 size goldberg extra with 2 1/4-20 bolts and never had a problem. And they sheared just as they were supposed too when i pancaked a landing after an engine out at about 75' with zero airspeed(hovering). Had the plane back in the air in 5 minutes rather than having to go home and glue the fuse back together.