adrian smith

Hi, since spotting the free plan, I have been plotting the build of a 10th scale model from this plan.I reduced the plan by 141%, this gives a wing span of 43", just right for a park fly model, however, I wanted to fit retracts and was immediately faced with the daunting prospect of designing my own as commercially available units do not cater for anything other than 90 deg travel. i eventually settled for a pair of units designed for medium sized planes of approx 48" inch span 40 cu.inch. power. after stripping the units, I made a saw cut casting towards the circular pawl rest. the material used for the central actuating rotor is glass reinforced plastic and very little sticks to it but after glueing in the wedges to reduce the pawl area movement with super glue, I have found the all is well.
The reason for the alteration is to give the 98 degree total travel needed to have the u/c legs raked forward at the correct angle when viewed from the side and a slightly outward angle when viewed from the front. and most importantly, the wheels tuck away right into the wing. the wing is now finished and the fuselage is in mid build but not assembled as per the plan. more anon as work progresses. any queries or questions so far? would like to hear from any interested fellow "from scratch" builders out there. regerds adrian.