A-10 Fixed Landing Gear. A solution

PFT A-10 FIXED LANDING GEAR. MY SOLUTION. 

I prefer to take off and land rather than hand launch and belly-skid for landing.  It looked like the belly landing thing could goof up some props so I tinkered with some gear designs. I talked this over with Josh Bixler at Flite Fest Ohio 2019 and he asked me to post an article on the subject. This is my first article so please bear with me. 

MAIN GEAR.  The gear legs exit the bottom of the engine nacelles 1/2 inch behind the existing wheel cut-outs. I found it necessary to use 1/8 inch ( .125 ) music wire for the main gear. The supplied .100 music wire was a little “floppy” for my taste. I bent a coil into the gear and it is just outside of the nacelle. The gear legs are bent rearward near the bottom ( like military Trailing - Link gear ) to put the wheels a little further aft of the CG.

I put a thin plywood plate ( same thickness as the engine mount ) on the inside top of the nacelle butted against the engine mount. There is also a plate glued to the bottom of the nacelle just behind the existing wheel opening. I then drilled a 1/8 inch hole through both plates trying to stay 90 degrees from the bottom wing surface. I’ll try to add a picture.  

Note the SECRET SAUCE to this lite-weight installation. The gear is inserted through the bottom of the nacelle THEN THROUGH A STEERING ARM and then through the top plywood plate. Note that the end of the steering arm is screwed to the plywood plate to keep it from rotating. HOW DO YOU TIGHTEN THE STEERING ARM COLLAR you might ask. You put a HOLE IN THE SIDE OF THE NACELLE for the wrench !!

This installation is as light as I could come up with and the gear is removable by simply loosening the collar and pulling the gear out of the hole. The steering arm will remain in place because it is screwed into the plywood plate. 

If there is any interest in this I can describe the nosewheel setup too. It is nearly identical except that the steering arm is actually used for steering so you must add a collar just inside the fuselage to keep the gear from falling out !  See pic below ( nose gear ...... steerable).  

Submitted respectfully,  Gary Contner

These 3 pix are in response to bird2jump. Gary