Its called Lazerpro the e dress is www Teamproducts. com I got mine on sale at Costco before Xmas on special for only $50 Can there are all kinds out there but this one is way beyond them in quality, one of the neat things is that the tripod has a wind up and down feature It made building so much easier Mike

Anothe laser item I like is the laser incidence meter. Good for checking stab/wing relation incidence, as well as checking for warped wings, etc. Sears also is selling some kind of laser that shoots vertical and horizontal lines, and is self leveling, according to the ads I've seen. Haven't got a close look at it yet though. I think they were selling it for $39.95.
Regarding LAPES, I saw a video taken at Ft. Bragg years ago where for some reason the pilot got the decent out of whack, and the Herk impacted the runway pretty hard, causing the tail section to break over the tailgate. As the Herk went out of the frame of the cameraman, the tank was coming out the back and the Herk continued on into the woods at the end of the runway with the tail drooping. They were doing the drop as part of a demo in front of a grandstand full of people. Last scene was smoke billowing up from the woods. I think the loadmaster either was bounced out or jumped out the rear of the plane and survived somehow.
Randy

Great info on the laser levels.

Thanks guys,

GUNNY

Ok guys, I finally got a little time and mounted my rear gear box tonight. I just hope that it is truly parallel with the sides. I am going to try to tackle the nose tommorow.
Bill

Got my robo struts in today (all FIVE of them) Damn, the price is going up quickly on this project.

Gunny

Good going Gunny, I wonder if Jim could tell us if he has any trouble with his gear?? I have been thinking about making up a set of boggies (sp) all four wheels mounted a plate that would have one center axle attaached to the fuse at the C/G , this would allow the bird to crank on take off and maybe if the back set of wheels were a little lower might help with landings any thoughts ???

multimike, Jim said he did have a little trouble with the gears bending and that in the beginning they were too low for grass fields.
I think he lowered them a little more. rryman built his on a separate plate that bolted up to the original plate and could be adjusted up or down via slots in the secondary plates. As far as what your talking (writing) about, I would'nt make the single common axle. I believe there would be even less give or "spring" in the gear design, and how would you adjust the height if needed. Now I'm going the expensive route, but then again...isn't it what this hobby is all about... GOD I LOVE IT. Pictures for a sneak peek of the mains.

Nice looking struts. And they're functional, right? That should give a lot of cushioning effect and reduce the stress on the fuselage.
Randy

Ok.... I had a bad experience with the rear gearbox! I guess the epoxy was to cold to mix really good or to cold for the epoxy to stick to the fiberglass. I simply touched the box and it went flying off! I went back and roughed everything up again, superheated the epoxy and FG body. It seemed to hold this time. Then I went in and put on the four braces that connect with the side walls. The only problem is that one of the braces did the same thing in one spot as the earlier gearbox did. I am going to heat the epoxy up and really thin it dowwn with denatured alcohol, and let it seep into the loose area. Next part is the nose gear. I am kind of unclear as to how I am going to do it. I want a more stable structure to mount the gear. Any word as to the cushion factor for the robo struts? Big qustion... how much were they??????
Bill R.

Cool looking struts. Too bad I did't think of them. Can you give part #'s I might convert.

Problems were gear bending on landing. I think the shock effect would help a lot. I can remove my gear plate, build a new one and mount the struts in your photo.

However I have gotten the landings down better. Land with 50% flaps keep it a little hot and fly it to touch down. If anyone wants a video of the landing send me your email. Too big to post. 2 meg. Also if you see the video, note there is a wind 10 G to 20 MPH when flying so the quick wing waggle just prior to touch down was the wind gust. The plane did do ok in the gust. WARNING the large fuse gives lots of drag and it will slow down rapidly,, much like a bipe. If you let it slow in the flare too long it will drop like a stone.

Just let me know your email for the video.. Jim

Guys check out this site for landing gear--you will have to copy and paste as is not direct. Are these the people you got yours from Gunny? They have a special set made for my 131 inch c-130e, but I see they are $600. Guess I will have to leap for them when the time comes. I just got done pricing the 4 engines, mounts, and exhaust system to run thru the wing, and that came up to $807.40. Sure glad we can't take it with us!! Yikes.

Mark

1/5th Scale Landing Gear

http://www.centuryjet.com/webstore/c...fm?Category=29

Where do you get the plans for the 131"? I would like to build one/two using either new electric stuff and/or (4) RCV 60 4-strokers, they should hide nice in a nacelle.

Jim,
Palmer Plans from Calif has a set of the 131" Herky bird. I just got mine in December as a birthday present for about $96.00, I think, postpaid. You can find him on the internet or any RC magazine. Five sheets of paper 3' x 6', and I have only found one mistake in his drawing so far. Suggests a lot of use of foam board but I found that heavier then soft balsa, square inch for squqre inch. And he stresses , "keep it light". Let me know if I can do anything else for you.
Mark

O.K. guys, here I come.

The struts are absolutelly functional. I use them all the time on my models. The trick is to have the struts compress 1/8" to about 1/4" under the aircrafts own weight (static weight, not in motion). The way to do this is to remove a c-clip and pin in the sizzor link and remove the lowwer strut assy. You then can remove the compression spring and replace it with a softer one or what I simply do is to cut one loop of the spring at a time to get the desired "softness". Most modelers not knowing just leave the stock tension in the struts and if the model is too light the springs don't compress under static weight. You see, if you make them a little softer, then the model or gear can take up some of the bumps. Especially flying off grass fields. They always worked for me. Less strain on retractable landing gears and the models structure. They give you a nice cushion barrier if you should make a hard landing and I would'nt have to worry about blowing a wing tube through the foam wing, especially that this one is very close to the top of the foam coars.

c130nut, You should roughen up the fiberglass and clean with alcohol. For better adhesion, use at least 30 min. epoxy and mix in 1/32" long milled fibers. On fiberglass work I use the BVM twin glue gun epoxy tube. It has these fibers in it. BVM also sells milled fibers. Your local hardware store sells something calle FIBER-POXY I think that's what it is called. I never used it thou. I also am going to use robarts steerable nose gear strut, but I'm replacing the actual strut with the one shown so I may mount two wheel on the nose axle.

I bought The following for my c-130 "Robo stuts all around":

(5) #650 straight robostruts 3/8" --4 for the mains and one for the nose---------------------------$44.95 ea. total--$224.75
(5) #654001M mountings blocks----to hold the robo struts to the ply side plate---------------------$11.50 ea. total--$ 57.50
(10) #654003M steering arm yoke-8 clamped to the mains & locked to the side ply plate.
2 for the nose strut not clamped to anything so it may steer--$ 1.65 ea. total--$ 16.50
plus their shipping and handling charges-------$ 8.00

So the total gear strut assy. cost me just over $300

The first picture is showing a comparison of my original mounting idea (1/2" steel square tube with hole and slot for clamping) This was a little heavy and I did'nt like how it worked in many aspects "period". The other one is the way I am going with. I liked everything about this method. It holds the strut tight (rotational wise too) and loosen up two bolts and the struts can easily be moved up or down for belly clearance.

The second and third pictures shows the steeing arm yoke. I'm calling it locking clamp and I added a bushing (the red one) for a spacer that sets the locking clamp perpendicular to the side ply plate.

The fourth picture again is the old mounting method which I am not going to use.

I plan on using 4 RCV 90's 4 strokes with 4 blade props. I might have already included a pic of the nacelles but here you go anyways. The RCV-90 fits just perfect inside the nacele of the 132"ws herk. The exhaust will be hidden via flex pipe and run to the trailing edge of the wing. A'la full scale style. the only thing sticking out of the nacelle will be the carb.

Grinder.

Here is an couple of pics of the props that i'm having made up for me. There still on the drawing table, delivery date is set to be early spring for engine run up trials to see how they perform with the RCV-90.

http://www.propellers.us/prop.jpg
http://www.propellers.us/prop1.jpg

Wow! That is going to be an awesome prop, not to mention the sound of the RCV ..90's.
Randy

Who is making the props? Anyone please help me on this one...... where do you find flexible tubing that attaches to four stroke exhuasts? I saw an angine that had an attachment that hooked up the stock ex. port and then the metal flex tube was routed to the rear of the engine. This would be used in a scale looking plane. Anybody know where to get it?

Here is the link for the manufactour of my custom made carbon fibre props. I searched high and low on the net for realistic looking square tip turbo props and there were none out there, so i asked this guy in N.Y. at Highland props what he could do for me and he is working on the first one now. The trick is calculating the amount of thrust of the prop with those big paddles for blades. The rcv should be up to the task with it's 2:1 gear reduction. 55 degree climbouts and high obstacle short field approach's are going to be sweet to watch.

http://propellers.us/index.htm

Here is the link for flexible exhaust pipes. I just have to double check on the thread measurement ( RCV vs. Saito )

http://saito-engines.info/muffler.html

Grinder.

Those are some great props. What made you decide to use the RCV 90's? Do you know what the intended flying weight of your plane is going to be? Would a scre jack system work good as a retract on the mains?

Well I found the Saito site; thanks Grinder. The problem now is that I have OS 30's. I woder if I could find the parts locally to make it myself? Any ideas as far as what parts and where to look? I am going to start at the local hardware store then hobby shop. The hobby shop is probably not going to have it though.
Bill

c130nut, sears hardware sells corregated gas lines for stoves. they come in different diameters, but maybe not that small, possibly heavy too concidering you need 4 of them. You can also use aerotrends (the blue fuel line people) silicone exhaust tubing. they sell different dia.'s. But what your really looking (the aluminum flexible exhaust pipe/tubibg) can be found from the people who sells "see temp" the see through templates. I use them when I need to. I get them at NY's WRAM SHOW coming up in Feb.

Gunny

Hey C130nut! I found it for you. Type in www.seetemp.com and on the left you'll see seven vertical circles. Click on the third circle down (products) then click on the > (next) and their you have it.

Gunny

Hey guys, its been a great thread with lots of good ideas but I am a scratch builder ( see cheap SOB) so far my bird is 80% finished and I have spent less than $100 on balsa and glue, my landing gears will be made of 5/32 wire, $5:00 down the tube I figure my total cost will be under $600 Can (not including the radio) which I have already,I envy you guys with your fantastic C130 s and wish you the best of flying luck, anybody that is interested in scratch built stuff just drop me a E [email protected]

By the way Gunny I think your landing gear set up using the struts is fanstastic, best idea yet Mike