Landing gear question, part 2
 

Ok I finished converting my avistar trainer from wire gear to an aluminum type landing gear for several reasons, the wire was sagging, didn't provide a lot of ground clearance for my prop with tall grass etc...

So I did the main gear and epoxied a ply doubler inside the fuse and attached it with nylon bolts and that seemed well.

The ground height of the plane increased about an inch which means I had to replace the nose gear as there wasn't enough wire to add any length.

The only 5/32 front landing gear wire I could find locally (with the coil in it etc..) was straight and didn't have a 90degree bend for the tire.

So I had to attach a 5/32 axle to it with the connection that basically acts as a wheel collar with the axle being the "set" screw to tighten it up. I ground a flat spot on the wire landing gear where it attached so that it wouldn't rotate, put a wheel collar above and below it and used locktite on all the set screws including the axle.

**This was all new to me, will this hold up under a trainer type landing? **Or should I just scrap it and find a front gear long enough with a 90 degree bend (I've looked on several manafture sites and those are all 5inches from axle bend to end which isn't enough.

Landing gear question, part 2
 

Sounds good to me.......... seen many setups like this..... just remember to adopt a proper pre-flight inspection and I'm sure this will work well.........................

Landing gear question, part 2
 

Yeah I was mainly concered that the front axle has no set screw like most I've seen other than the axle itself. But I ground two flat spots (on opposite sides) of the axle past the wheel so I could get a good grip on it to screw it in there and used loctite on it.

Landing gear question, part 2
 

Your setup sounds ok, but wouldn't it have been easier to just spread the aluminum landing gear so that the plane sat lower and you could use the original nose gear?

Landing gear question, part 2
 

As Minnflyer said. ;)

Although, going to all that trouble to put on new gear, I would have converted it to a tail dragger. :D
Dennis-

Landing gear question, part 2
 

It's actually a Dubro one that's made of fiberglass or some other composite by looking at it. Meaning you can't spread it and it retain that shape.

I wanted to raise the plane a good bit anyway because we fly on rough grass. Sometimes with an 11 inch prop I whack weeds a good bit and kill the engine on taxi.

Landing gear question, part 2
 

Ohhhh. In your first post you said "An Aluminum type gear" I assumed that it was aluminum. As Rosanne Rosannadanna would say... nevermind :)

Landing gear question, part 2
 

Yeah I didn't know what else to call it, maybe Dural style or something.

Main question was having an axle for a straight wire where the axle is the set screw itself - wondering how well they hold up.