Olympic landing gear

Have Brodak Olympic and I think the landing gear is bent wrong. I constructed the wheel pants and fairings so the gear bent forward, which looked correct. Last night, I was looking at the plane and realized the wheels were bent out aoout 12 degrees. So, I removed the gear and switched sides. Now the fairings and pants are on backwards, but the wheels are in alignment. The problem is that the gear now bends backward where the wheels sit about mid point under the wing. Looks really funny (the fairings and wheelpants being backwards don't help). Is this right or is my wire bent incorrectly? Either way I'm going to have to cut off the fairings and wheel pants and redo them.

So in other words you had "toe out" on the gear (kiss of death) as it was originally assembled?

Huge toe out.

>Huge toe out.

Redo it then- AND complain to Brodak.
You can imagine what kind of ground handling you would get with this kind of set up.

Mitch,
How's your summer going? Re: the gear thing. I had a problem with a Top Flight Reb Box P-40 gear install many years ago. I could not figure out how,or more correctly, why the gear legs were so short. The model did not sit at all as tall as shown on the plans. Puzzled over this for what seemed like months. Finally one afternoon after fiddling with the wing and some other things the light bulb went on. I had used the axle part of the gear leg as the mounting peg into the gear blocks, and the gear mounting peg as the axles. I swapped them around, and switched them from side to side and hey presto it sat right up as per the plans. As hard as it is to believe this, I could not for the life of me see this at first glance, (can you say brian fart?), put that's what happened. Felt like a real "Homer" when I finally figured it out. Maybe this is part of your problem also (swapped legs,not the Homer thing ). Other then that I'd say you could have Pathfinder main gear in your box. They extend back under the wing instead of out in front(depending on install), due to the tricycle gear config. I've got an Olimpic here, but have not cracked the plastic on it as yet. Twist them puppies every which direction (know you've done that) and see if this is the case. Here's hoping.

edit: Toe out? This sounds like the wrong peg in the gear block of a tapered wing gear mounting block install. Assuming that the parts are correct for the kit. Does the angle of the toe out equal the angle of the wing taper perhaps?

>Mitch,
> How's your summer going? Re: the gear thing. I had a
>problem with a Top Flight Reb Box P-40 gear install many
>years ago. I could not figure out how,or more correctly,
>why the gear legs were so short. The model did not sit at
>all as tall as shown on the plans. Puzzled over this for
>what seemed like months. Finally one afternoon after
>fiddling with the wing and some other things the light bulb
>went on. I had used the axle part of the gear leg as the
>mounting peg into the gear blocks, and the gear mounting peg
>as the axles. I swapped them around, and switched them from
>side to side and hey presto it sat right up as per the
>plans. As hard as it is to believe this, I could not for
>the life of me see this at first glance, (can you say brian
>fart?), put that's what happened. Felt like a real "Homer"
>when I finally figured it out. Maybe this is part of your
>problem also (swapped legs,not the Homer thing ). Other
>then that I'd say you could have Pathfinder main gear in
>your box. They extend back under the wing instead of out in
>front(depending on install), due to the tricycle gear
>config. I've got an Olimpic here, but have not cracked the
>plastic on it as yet. Twist them puppies every which
>direction (know you've done that) and see if this is the
>case. Here's hoping.
>
>edit: Toe out? This sounds like the wrong peg in the gear
>block of a tapered wing gear mounting block install.
>Assuming that the parts are correct for the kit. Does the
>angle of the toe out equal the angle of the wing taper
>perhaps?
>
>Tony

Except on an Olympic, the main gear legs aren't at a 90 degree angle (vertical plane, viewed from ahead or astern) to the wing centerline. They only fit one way around.

Ok,..so now the plastic is broken on my kit:) Here's what I found. You and I both will need to twist the gear wires to bring the wheels into alignment. The gear wires are only bent on two planes. A twist is needed to make them work. I did not read the destruction booklet so I'm unsure if John mentions this fact. Some trial and error fitment ahead it would seem. Mitch, your gear legs look like mine?

>Ok,..so now the plastic is broken on my kit:) Here's what
>I found. You and I both will need to twist the gear wires
>to bring the wheels into alignment. The gear wires are only
>bent on two planes. A twist is needed to make them work. I
>did not read the destruction booklet so I'm unsure if John
>mentions this fact. Some trial and error fitment ahead it
>would seem. Mitch, your gear legs look like mine?
>
>Tony

Music wire is FUN stuff! Actually, you have to bend the axles in to match the centerline also...
Needless to say, the vertical (wing block) part is the LAST thing that should have been bent- and that requires either a good jig or a whole lotta guess work to get the angle correct. You MAY get crystallization and failure if you try and twist it this much now. My personal advice is: "Scrap them and start fresh, otherwise you WILL hate yourselves in the AM"...

I e-mailed Brodak and John said he'd send me a new set of gears. I will probably do that, even though I think all gears will be bent wrong. Still, it gives me another set to play with if I screw these up trying to bend them.

I may not completely understand the problem that Mitch described. I would suggest that the plans be examined fairly closely. The configuration of the main gear on Bob Gialdini's Olympic is a bit different than the standard wing mounted gear. I think the drawing that Tony had in his #6 post shows that this is, in Bob Gialdini's words, a "swept-in wing mounted gear in search for better landing ability on hard surfaces."* The operative term here is "swept-in". If your gear wires are mounted in their blocks to give this swept-in characteristic as well as the forward position of the axles, then you need to check the axle alignment prior to putting the wheels and pants on. You can sight from one axle to the other to see/determine what the alignment is. If it is not to the desired toe in (or whatever direction you want your wheels to track) it does not take much effort with pliers and/or vice grips working with the LG struts to get the desired alignment while still maintaining the design "sweep-in" as well as the forward position of the axles relative to the CG. Granted, it is a little tricky in the case of these struts because of the swept-in and swept forward angle of the main struts from their mounting blocks. But a little bit of twisting, using the pliers/vicegrips, adjustments of the axles can be made to get the desired alignment.

*Note: The quote is from Gialdini's Olympic article published in the 63 American Modeler Annual.