Skyray 35

About 2/3 finished building a Skyray 35 which I intend to use a 35 Fox Stunter on. The kits calls for a single wheel landing gear. Does anyone have experience with this ? Should i bend a new landing gear and put on a double or leave off the gear altogether? Once and awhile my 11 year old son helps launch my plane and I don't know if I would feel safe with him hand launching without gear.

The single wheel gear should work fine for take-offs. My Flite Steak has a single wheel and I've had no problems at all. Originally had no gear, but I added it for the same reason you don't want to go without the gear.

Agree. I've flown a number of single wheel Streaks, both regular and Jr.

Use a big one, like up to 3", if you fly on grass. Smaller is OK on harder surfaces.

Lots of satisfaction when you grease a one wheeler in.

Mike,
The single wheel gear will be just fine for most types of flying. The gear location shown on the plans is intended for hard surfaces. If you fly mostly from grass, move the gear forward to a vertical position. This will help keep the model from flipping over when landing in the grass.

Mike Pratt

Thanks for all your imput-I will use all three suggestions: Keep the single wheel, possibly go a little larger for take-offs on grass (where I usually fly) and lastly move it forward a little to prevent tip-overs on grass. All great suggestions-exactly why I go to this site for help. Thanks - Mike

Personal feelings? I wish I could make ALL of my airplanes monowheel. I can grease landings every time with a monowheel. They work great in grass because there is less to get caught up in the grass and even better on pavement where you have no such worries.

I suggest adding CG tip skids to both wing tips where they make contact with the ground. Even on grass they help.

Have fun with the Skyray. Great flying airplane! Ed

I am also building a kit bashed Skyray. Mine will have added wing span 2" and a larger stab/elevator than a stock one. It is also going to have an aluminum LG mounted to the lower motor mount and have two wheels. It is intended for flying in the profile PA event. Instead of a .35 I might put my Veco .19BB in it and fly it on my 58.5' lines. It will be somewhat lighter than a stock Skyray since I substituted balsa for the ribs and spars. I also intend to cover the wings with moneykote and paint the fuse and empanage with Lustercote.

I've built and flown the Skyray with both the single and dual wheeled versions. The single wheel works fine - as long as you fly only over grass. I took mine to a contest (where they flew over asphalt) and scuffed up the wing tips pretty good. You can put skids on the tips to prevent that but...

The two wheel version also worked well.

Compromise and make the gear removable. You can use single, dual or no gear depending on the situation.

For my dual gear setup I ordered the LG wire from a Brodak Streak Trainer.

There was a good thread on Isky's around July 10th about using a single wheel model with a stooge.