Different drybread style?

[Hans S]

This is what I'm thinking. These guys make gear out of aluminum, the equivalent size seems to be less than the 30lb fiberglass bow currently used. My thought was to make a templete of the shape I need bent and have them build a set of retract arms. These would only recess into the fuselage an inch. And from what I can tell, 9lbs lighter. No worry about warm brakes melting the gear also.

 

http://www.groveaircraft.com/landing_gear.html

[chasingmars]

This is what I'm thinking. These guys make gear out of aluminum, the equivalent size seems to be less than the 30lb fiberglass bow currently used. My thought was to make a templete of the shape I need bent and have them build a set of retract arms. These would only recess into the fuselage an inch. And from what I can tell, 9lbs lighter. No worry about warm brakes melting the gear also.

 

As a data point, a bare bow, right ot of the box before trimming or layups or whatever, weighs (in my case anyhow, my bow arrived this week) about 13.2kg (or about 29 pounds). I suspect we add alot more glass than we trim in chapter 9.

 

That said, assuming you're looking at the "Cavalier" 1800lb rated arms, that 25# is for the bare legs only too, and a retract system has a lot more mounting & hardware mass. Not to mention that a lot of the load transfer is managed by the "bow" centrepiece, if you use two independant legs, you're going to need a much beefier attach structure to deal with the localized bending/torsion loads, or, if you put them on oleos for compression (probably necessary, the S-glass bow it it's own shock absorber, not so most aluminum gear), then you need to account for that weight and stucture to transmit those loads. And while the legs may only be 1" thick, that doesn't mean a 1" cutout. What about the wheels/brakes, the lines, the shocks, the mounting and swing mechanisms, all these require space and weight allowance.

[Hans S]

The weights were for the legs only. If you do a drybread/velocity style legs, it has all the same extra equip. And yes, from what I've seen in the plans, more glass/weight is added in Chap 9. Not sure how much weight. When I went back to the site, I'm not sure which one (21lb) I was referencing. I had been on a few other sites too, think I referenced the wrong company. Anyway, it was a thought about alternatives. They are pricey at about $1000-2000.