Lest you think this build is going to be all sunshine and fairy tales, we're now at a problem I knew about when I bought the kit and was going to have to deal with during construction: the landing gear.
In the kit design the travel of the landing gear actuators is determined by external limit switches mounted on the bulkhead. The good thing is that it's easy to adjust them, the bad thing is that they're exposed and can be affected by water, knocked out of alignment, etc. I was tipped off that the same manufacturer makes the same actuator but with the switches mounted internally, factory sealed away from the elements and unable to be knocked out alignment. If I had been thinking I would have researched the problem and ordered them when I was building the wings, but I was happily living in a state of denial about having to deal with it. It will take about 5 weeks for them to be built and delivered.
The major problem I have with the gear is that there's no manual/emergency extension option. As in any mechanical system there are a few points of failure, from not having an electrical system problem and not being able to extend the gear, to the worst case having a failure of one actuator and having only one leg extend. Yeah, the odds of this happening are pretty small, but in 21 years of flying I've never had an engine fail yet I still practice my engine out procedures.
I decided to go ahead and build the kit landing gear to become familiar with it and because I was curious.
A wide shot of the gear down and locked.
In the kit design the travel of the landing gear actuators is determined by external limit switches mounted on the bulkhead. The good thing is that it's easy to adjust them, the bad thing is that they're exposed and can be affected by water, knocked out of alignment, etc. I was tipped off that the same manufacturer makes the same actuator but with the switches mounted internally, factory sealed away from the elements and unable to be knocked out alignment. If I had been thinking I would have researched the problem and ordered them when I was building the wings, but I was happily living in a state of denial about having to deal with it. It will take about 5 weeks for them to be built and delivered.
The major problem I have with the gear is that there's no manual/emergency extension option. As in any mechanical system there are a few points of failure, from not having an electrical system problem and not being able to extend the gear, to the worst case having a failure of one actuator and having only one leg extend. Yeah, the odds of this happening are pretty small, but in 21 years of flying I've never had an engine fail yet I still practice my engine out procedures.
I decided to go ahead and build the kit landing gear to become familiar with it and because I was curious.
A wide shot of the gear down and locked.
