RE: BTE Venture 60
 

I'll bet the decision was not as to the strength of the gear but shipping the gear in a rather tight box. I too have thought about the split landing gear plates and I'm going to put a cover plate of AL over that split with bolts all the way through.

RE: BTE Venture 60
 

10-4 on this about shipping size. Also to have a one piece swept gear wastes a lot of aluminum. I've made them by hand and there is a lot of cut away material.

RE: BTE Venture 60
 

You are all right about the engineering decisions. I wanted the gear to mount to the fuselage, which is strong. But I also wanted it to sweep back, placing the wheel axles under the wing LE which is ideal for ground handling. One of the biggest complaints with the Four-Star was bounciness on landing caused by the wheels being too far forward. That's something I wanted to improve with the V60. One piece gear is ideal, but difficult to manufacture in the swept shape. The two-piece solution solved that problem with the added benefit of being easier to pack. It's not a throw-away gear, but lots of modelers replace it with a one-piece gear which might, in fact, be better suited for a rough grass field. For smooth grass or hard runway, I'd stick with the kit gear. It is the easiest ground handling taildragger I've ever flown.

RE: BTE Venture 60
 

I just wanted to convey that the gear itself is plenty strong, I purchased the gear for my 4 Star 60. It was my 2nd plane so my landings were not always the best. :D The gear held up fine.
John

RE: BTE Venture 60
 

Have 2 buddies at the field who fly Ventures off short grass and paved. They say stock gear works just fine.

Bruce, have you ever considred a job with NASA? Your aircraft don't fall apart or blow up.

Tom

RE: BTE Venture 60
 

As mentioned above in my earlier post, I have hundreds of flights on a grass strip with the stock gear and not a single problem.

RE: BTE Venture 60
 

I am making some slow progress. The landing gear is installed per the plan. The 1/8" rod is what I used to line up on the leading edge of the wing when I mounted the landing gear.

RE: BTE Venture 60
 

Neat idea on the rod for alignment. I stumbled on that idea when installing the landing gear on an UltraSport 1000 I built and used the landing gear from a Great Planes Ultimante Bipe. It, also, was a two piece gear set. I thought and thought about ways to get it positioned and mounted and have them come out straight. Then a light bulb went off: use a long piece of threaded rod. It worked great:D

RE: BTE Venture 60
 

When I have a light bulb go off, I'm in the dark.....

RE: BTE Venture 60
 

Now, I have another question. With the Saito 82 engine mounted upright, what is the preferred method for throttle linkage hookup. I have a 4-stroke throttle linkage kit from Dubro, but the throttle cable from the servo will rub against the throttle arm on the carb as it passes by to attach to the linkage due to the close proximity of the throttle arm and the balsa cheek. Any suggestions?

Joe

RE: BTE Venture 60
 

On the Saito 82 the carb is off to the left on the engine so it will work better to have the throttle arm on the left side of the engine.

You will need to run the throttle to the left of the tank.

I use a plastic sheath with a .062" or 1/16" control wire.

At the servo arm, I use one of those pass through clamp type clevises so I can change the length of the rod.

At the throttle arm, I put a "Z-bend" in the wire. This lets me pull the throttle arm up close to the firewall for full throttle and close by the cylinder head for idle cut-off

Simple - sweet and a minimum of extra or special parts extra bends, etc.

RE: BTE Venture 60
 

Unless I have the thrust line marked a little too high on the firewall (on the plan it shows 1-3/4" below the top of the firewall), with the throttle arm pointing up above the carb, the top hole in the throttle arm is just above the top of the firewall (that would be about 3/4" above the carb throttle shaft center line). The center of the throttle shaft is right at 1-1/16" above the thrust line. So, I'll have to orient the throttle arm to the down side, and that will work.
Thanks.

Joe

RE: BTE Venture 60
 

Consider an offset in your throttle rod?

RE: BTE Venture 60
 

Yes, I did, but the connection at the throttle arm would be above the firewall and sheeting.

Joe

RE: BTE Venture 60
 

Due to an expected heavy work load, I won't have time to spend on the V60 for about the next 5 weeks. I had emailed Bruce Tharpe in the past asking if he ever thought about making a biplane version of the Flyin King. He said he had not.After spending the time building the V60 I think it would be a great candidate for a second wing. This is a dead give away that I have been reading Biplane Secrets parts 1,2,&3. Due to the first sentence in this post, I can only report it was a very good read.

Joe

RE: BTE Venture 60
 

You need to post a link to the biplane secrets

RE: BTE Venture 60
 

This is a series of articles that Carl Risteen has written; I hope it shows up OK.

http://www.modelairplanenews.com/ME2...143D925A9504B7

RE: BTE Venture 60
 

What is the main "secret" of biplanes that I have learned by watching others at my club? Usually I have assembled my plane, flown it, maybe flown it a time or two more, had my coffee and the biplanes are still being assembled. All those wires, struts, wings:D:D

RE: BTE Venture 60
 

I love someone else's biplane but do not own one for the very reason posted above.

Most are not so bad as to have to fiddle with wires but there are still two wings to maintain and mount

RE: BTE Venture 60
 

Yes, but a 60" bipe will fit in my SUV with the wings on. I've gone for years without disassembling it.;)

RE: BTE Venture 60
 

Can someone give me the angle of the rudder hinge line in relation to the thrust line and the horizontal stab offset in relation to the thrustline, also?
Stab incidence would be nice ,too.
I have a 4star 60 that I'd like to bash into a Venture-style plane.

Thanks!!

RE: BTE Venture 60
 

Lowvoltage,
Both of my V60s have been powered with a Saito .82. In both of them I mounted the arm for the DuBro 4-stroke linkage far forward on the outside of the motor mount beam. The connector from the servo is a cable with a clevis soldered to the end. Attach this clevis to the bottom hole of the 4-stroke linkage arm and run a wire pushrod back to the throttle arm on the engine. The cable from the servo from the arm comes through the firewall beside the motor mount beam (I think it is shown on the drawings at that location,,,been awhile.).
I used a DuBro #608 Kwik-Grip on both the throttle arm on the engine and on the servo arm. I know...many people do not like them. I have never had a problem with them.
By running the cable through the firewall beside the engine mount beam to the low hole on the arm and then taking off from the top hole on the arm with the pushrod to the throttle arm you will be able to avoid all mechanical interferences.
Good luck.

RE: BTE Venture 60
 

Here's how I did the throttle on my Hog Bipe.

RE: BTE Venture 60
 

Here are some photos of my throttle setup with the Saito 82, using the dubro throttle kit.

RE: BTE Venture 60
 

I had the Dubro throttle set up in place, but the cable from my servo was too close to the carb throttle arm in the down position. That wasmy fault for using the large Sig two-piece mount. I did grind out the web of the mount to allow for the throttle arm. I should probably go back and install another mount that would give me some more clearance. Thanks for the replies.

Joe

I am currently working on alarge transformer installation and we had some fitting issues too. See below