I was fortunate enough to come across an old MK Curare kit, but I'm having difficulty finding a set of tri-gear retracts to fit. If you've solved this, please let me know what you used, any mods required, and where you got 'em. I'm open to mechanical or pneumatic, although I think w/ it being an all-wood kit, there's not much room back aft for an air tank. Thanks!

Tim

Goldberg used to offer a mechanical tri-gear retract.

I think I still have an unused set if you're interested. I don't know whether they would fit a Curare or not.

An exact fit would be the MK retracts, and you should be able to get them through Gator. An almost exact alternate would be the the Dave Brown Southern retracts. Both of these are good quality.

That being said, there are some smaller, lighter mechanical retracts available. The Hobbico set is a good buy, but you may want to by two sets so you have spare parts. Many of the competitive fliers were using Supras until the switch to fixed gear, but I haven't seen any trike sets of those.

For pneumatics, SpringAirs are the best, IMHO.

I'd stay away from the Goldbergs.

Hope this helps. I'm facing the same problem with my Blue Angel.

-Ron

My old Aurora has MK's--single servo operation linkage is a bit of a problem.

If I were doing it again I would try to fit Spring Air's first.

My first pattern ship had goldberg retracts. Not very good in the long run for me. My second used spring air. Good quality just have to slow down the speed with line restrictors. Air pressure was a bit of a pin in the butt though. After that I switched to mechanical, usually MK or supra. Both high quality although there were two lnes ok MK. One aluminum the other plastic. Always using 1 servo so the nose gear could be a bit of a linkage problem. I would only use mechanical in a standard pattern plane after trying all of the above.

Stuart C.

What size Curare is this?
I have a set of New MK retracts (nose, main) 25 ~ 40 size.

Ihncheol Park
P & A Hobbies

Will the air tank fit above the fuel tank? Spring Air makes a great set of retracts for these aircraft.

a hot setup in the 80s around here was the Goldberg mains and the Dave Brown nose gear. The Goldberg nose gear was pretty weak and and fold on anything but a perfect landing where the Dave Brown nose gear are very tough. The Goldberg mains were fine and lighter than the Dave Browns. Some of our patternships from the day are all Goldberg, all Dave Browns, and the last was a mix as described above. It seems to be the best solution for weight and reliability, but you can't go wrong with all 3 Dave's.

eness76-RCU, Are you running 1 or 2 servos on your Tiporares for the mechanical retracts? I will be building another one with Dave Brown retracts. I have been looking at the MK retract linkage to operate all 3 off one servo.... but it seems like this linkage favors mid-wing planes.

Can some of you guys who have all 3 retracts working off one servo post some pictures of the linkage you have?

Thanks for all the replies and helpful info. To further clarify, it's the .60 sized kit. There is NO room above the fuel tank for an air tank, unless I put it in the cockpit! <g> I think I'll be able to squeeze a small tank in the aft fuselage, tho I might have to get creative w/ the elevator pushrods to go around it.

Thanks for the offer of the G'berg retracts, Jabowil, but I didn't have much luck w/ them on a previous plane, so don't want to tempt fate w/ my new bird.

For those who suggested MK's, are tri-gear MK's still available? I haven't found them anywhere. I see mains on the Gator site, but can't get hold of them to find out if tri's are still available. I did finally find a set of Robart pneumatics that will work and may go w/ them. Anyone have the part # for the SpringAirs that were suggested? I can't find any belly-mount nose gears on their site.

As I said in my first post, space is *really* limited on the nose gear. There's only 1 3/8" between the mounting plate and the bottom of the fuselage. The mounting plate is 2 1/8" x 2 1/8", so width isn't much of an issue. The entire nose gear compartment fore/aft is 6 5/8", so there's not much room for the mechanism and tire combo.

As impactiq asked, pics please for a mechanical setup!!! I'm leaning toward air if possible to avoid spending hours bending wires and having to deal w/ hooking up the nose gear each time I pull the wing off.

Thanks again!
Tim

Ours are all one servo. I'll get some pictures this evening after work. Also for you old schoolers, you'll see something you haven't seen in quite a while....a Chevron retract servo.

Sounds to me like the Spring-Airs may be your best bet. Their website is http://www.retracts.com/index.html and that has a phone number. Give them a call and talk to Bill Watten, who runs the place. He's a real nice fellow and can advise you. Tell him Ron Ellis referred you.
He has some small air tanks, too. We used to stick the tank in the canopy like you suggested or even the wing. They also have a little switch valve you can activate with a micro-servo. It was not unheard-of to put the tank, switch valve, servo and inlet valve all in the wing center section and have tubing connectors to the nose gear.

Thanks, Ron. I gave Bill @ Spring Air a call and got great help. I've got a set of 202's on the way. Hopefully I can locate the tank in the aft fuse, or in the wing. I want to keep the cockpit open for my crash-test-dummy. He's been through a few planes now and has turned out to be a pretty good pilot. <g> So far he's worn out about 3 planes and only crashed one - an Ultra Sport. I had the controls on high rates, over-rotated on a rolling circle, grabbed a handful of elevator, and promptly had it high-speed snap into the runway. Ouch.... The dummy (the one in the plane, not w/ the tx) survived pretty well tho!

I'll update y'all on the progress as soon as the engine and retracts arrive. Thanks for all help!

Tim

Any luck with the pictures?

yeah sorry about the delay. My wife had our first baby on the 8th so it's been hectic around here. Here's some pics of the Tipo setup. Remember this plane is 19 years old, so it's got some blemishes here and there.

Congratulations on the new addition to the family!!!! Boy or Girl?

Thank you for the pictures too.

No Problem.
Boy, 10lbs 22".
This pushrod setup for the nose gear would be about exact for a Curare, as the Tipo has the same exact wing placement in the fuse.

I use "standard size" Eurokit trike retracts in my curare (made in italy and around £95 for the stearable trike set in the UK) . These are air up/spring down. I fitted the air tank in the top of the fusalage behind the cockpit. I beefed up the legs to 5mm as the original 4mm legs kept getting bent.

Dave Windy Miller