Guys, I recently purchased a Bert Baker Zero kit. Since it is wood, rather than fiberglass/foam I was wondering which retracts you had experience with on the Yellow Zero. I doubt if anyone remembers what they used on the BB kit, since this one was manufactured in 1982. I tend to lean towards the Spring-Air line. Anyone have a set of retracts for this bird collecting dust? Thanks for your replies.

fwman1

I don't know but if you call Century Jet they may. They have been around along time and have a lot of knowledge. They custom fabricated retracts for a 1/5 FW 190D9 that I'm building and the kit manufacturer was out of business. Nice guys. Randy

Thanks for the suggestion. The Yellow Zero is a redesign of the Baker kit. I'm assuming that retracts that fit a Yellow Zero will work on the Baker version. That would be good since off the shelf units will cost less. Hopefully I can get my balsa version to finish up a few pounds lighter than the Yellow Zero.

Just went to there web site and chose 1/5 retracts and at the very bottom are the Yellow Aircraft Zero retracts. Measure your openings or check your plans for dimensions and compre to there's. They are'nt cheap $340.00 smackers$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Any reason you're shying away from the Yellow retracts? I've got a set, and they are very nice -stout and scale.

I am not trying to avoid the Yellow retracts. I just have no experience with any of the companies that make retracts that this plane could use. I like the idea of the Spring-air system, but don't know if they work well or not for this plane. I'm looking for some real world experience...like yours. Thanks for the vote of confidence for the Yellow units.

I will say that I am a 'frugal flyer', and if I can get something that will do the job for less, that's what I'd like to use. I'm a 'sport scale' guy who gets a little bit of the pucker problem if I get too much time or cash tied up in a plane. My recent Dynaflite Chipmunk is about the right balance of big, scale, and not too pricey. I like to build, but it is no accident that I got a 22 year old kit, rather than a new glass and foam kit at more than double the price. I'll likely be using a used G38 to fly it. They can be gotten pretty reasonable since the G-26 came along.

Again, thanks to ALL for their input. That's why I posted this in the first place. Anyone use any other retracts on this bird? How did they do?

I have the YA Zero and put the Century retracts in. Loved the struts, hated the retract part. I now have custom ones. Shindin machine can make a set of custom ones for you for less than YA.