Hi Guys,
I am building a Dirty Birdy from plans. I am using spring air retracts. For the nose wheel, is 2 inch large enough to fly of a grass field? If I use 2 inch it retracts all the way. If I use 2.25 inch it sticks out about 3/16 or 1/4 inch. What do you all think?
Jim

Can you build it so you can try both sizes? You can use an adjustable axle on the nose gear strut.

If the smaller wheel digs in too much you may have to go larger.

David

Glad to hear that you are building an aircraft with retracts. There are a number of designs that have nose gears that don’t fully disappear into the wheel well. The main advantage of retracts is to reduce drag by getting the wheel and strut out of the airstream. I use 2 ¼� wheels on the main gear and 2� on the nose but I mostly fly off tarmac. There are a number of 2� wheels available some wider than others. The Sullivan Skylite works pretty well but as I recall I had to drill the hub for the 5/32� strut.

I always used to use 2" nose and 2 1/4 mains. We flew off grass, but it was always clipped short.

The grass is cut short on the field where I fly, but it is bumpy. I think I will start with the 2.25 inch. As rainedave pointed out it is easy enough to switch size at a later time. Thanks for the input.

Jim