FliteTest Swapable Spitfire Retractable Landing Gear

thingiverse

This is a comprehensive guide on how to install a set of retractable landing gears into a 1/5 scale foam-board de Havilland Mosquito (FT Spitfire). The guide assumes that the reader has already completed some steps in preparing their plane, such as drilling holes for servo leads. Here's an overview of the steps: 1. Remove any existing gear from your plane. 2. Cut out a circle on each wing tip for the retracting mechanism to fit into. 3. Use a drill press or jigsaw to make two small holes in each wing tip, one at the front and one at the back. 4. Thread a wire through the nose of the plane and into the hole between the wings where the other servo leads come through. 5. Cut out a hole for the servo connector to come through where you traced it back in step 9. 6. Pull the wire through the hole until one end is coming out this hole and the other is through the fuselage. 7. Attach one end of the servo extender to the wire at the hole end and gently pull it back through with the wire. 8. Ensure your knot is good enough too, last thing you want is it falling off and having to do step 10 again! 9. Glue the landing gear on now. Messing this up may lead to trying again being messy so make sure you're in a position to apply glue and attach it with time to spare. 10. Apply glue to the flat side of the servo housing and press that onto the wing where you drew an outline. 11. Once set or enough that it won't slide easily apply glue to the flat surface of the pivot brace and and slide that onto the landing gear pivot while pressed onto the wheel. The steps for the tail are similar, with some adjustments made for the different shape and size of the Mosquito's tail: 12. Test fit the wheel in the tail leg. 13. Fit the axle into the fork with the wheel in and glue the cap in like you did with the retractable gear earlier. 14. Take your push rod and bend one end so you can link it onto the rudder servo horn. 15. Finally with the push rod linked through one of the small holes in the tail gear on the extended plate and the servo horn you can put glue along the topside of the flange on the pivot plate and press it into the spitfires tail portion. The guide ends with a congratulatory message for completing the installation, and an invitation to share experiences and comments.