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Step 2: Assembling the Landing Gear
1.
Bend the 1/16” landing gear wires, using the plans for your pattern. Be VERY careful and take
your time. You want the landing gear to line up nicely, so measure 2-4 times and bend once.
There is an extra piece of wire in case you make a mistake.
2.
Lay out the front landing gear wire parts as shown below. Tie them with a single wrap of
spider wire to hold them together as shown below. Solidly wrap spider wire on the 2 top wire
joints. You can use a little thick CA so it sticks at first and then soak it in thin CA when the
wrap is done. You will wrap the outer joints later, and DO NOT wrap the center joint! With the
center joint wrapped, the gear is extremely stiff and has no shock absorption.
3.
Glue the 1/16” balsa landing gear core to one of the 1/32” ply parts as shown below. If the
center holes do not line up, rotate one of the parts 180 degrees so they do line up. It is best
to use 5 minute epoxy here to make sure you get a very solid glue joint. After the glue is dry,
trim out the 3 tabs on each side so the landing gear wire can fit in the slots.
4.
Insert the landing gear wires into the gear mount as shown below. Use the remaining spider
wire to wrap the wires on the outside by the axles as shown below. Make sure the landing
gear wires are staying flat in the landing gear mount slots while you are doing this. Once
again, DO NOT wrap the center joint!