ZeppelinIII

I've always loved the look of a duellist, and it's going to be my next project after the 4 i'm working on.....

I've been reading lots of the thoughts on it and I have a question about retracts. I've read that it has a serious issue with ground clearance, so I was looking for thoughts about flipping the retracts around and retracting them out (towards the wingtips) like a spitfire.....I know there are lots of people who like them and have built/flown them, so I'm just looking for thoughts and Ideas about this (good or bad)

thanks,
Zep

William Robison

My Feedback: (3)

Zep:

The real limit on the Duellist's ground clearance is the nose gear length. The mains can be made long enough without moving their mounts.

The eaasiest thing is just a slight lengthening of the fuselage, or moving the F1 former a little forward. This allows a longer nose strut, problem solved.

Another thing that helps a lot is to eliminate the engine's down thrust, raise them to two degrees up. This puts the thrust line at an effective zero-zero, since the wing and stab are also set at two degrees positive. Leaves the fuselage center line at minus two degrees. You wont notice it in operation.

The Duellist 2/40 Mk II has the wings, stab, and engines all at zero, so bringing your engines up to +2* is modernizing the plane as well.

I use all these tricks on kit built Duellists, except moving the F1 former forward. But I've never had a prop tip clearance problem either, as I use three bladed props.

Hope this gives you some ideas you can use.

Bill.

ZeppelinIII

Thanks Bill,

My one thought about the three bladed props is that they would get in the way if I needed to belly land it (retracts problem or emergency)....that's why i'd hoped to stay with 2-bladed

Zep

William Robison

My Feedback: (3)

Zep:

A minor point. I set my props to come against compression with one blade straight up, this gives the least prop blade sticking below the plane. So far I've not damaged one on landing with gear up.

If it really worries you just stick with Spring-Air retracts - their failure mode is gear down.

Bill.

ZeppelinIII

Not a big worry, just a thought among many....was already thinking of going with the spring air's so then it's no longer a problem

thanks for the info.

Zep