Building the (Old) FLYLINE Great Lakes 2T-1A Kit (16)

Posted on by

On the FlyLine kit plan, the landing gear is shown as several poorly defined struts made up from brass strip and aluminum tube as well as a main and rear strut of 3/32″ steel wire. The main wire strut includes the axles, and if carefully assembled by wire-wrap-and-solder with the rear strut, MIGHT pass for a functional landing gear. It’s assumed that the builder can figure out how to make the working shock (compression) struts from the material provided…but…in my experience having seen a couple of these assemblies at the field, I would not count on the design to provide a reliable, flight-worthy landing gear. I chose to use the general layout provided by the plan with some material upgrades and a little inventiveness to build a landing gear with functioning compression struts that ought to hold up to regular use. This is the sort of project that gives meaning to the term “real model builder”…you have to WANT to do it to invest the time and effort necessary.

I used the two pre-bent 3/32″ wire struts as provided in the kit and employed “scrap pile” stuff (as noted) for the rest of the job. There’s no reason you could not go out and buy whatever you might need at the LHS. You could also make a much simpler practical landing gear assembly if you feel more comfortable doing it that way (I won’t tell).

This is the primary lateral strut that extends throught the fuselage and out each side to support the vertical compression struts. The key to material choice for me was to find a length of ordinary K&S brass tube that would slip over the inner ends of the 4-40 DuBro rods ends I had laying around. I used a piece of left over 4-40 threaded rod to connect them and filled out the tube to a bigger (stronger) diameter with tubing of the next two larger sizes. I took my primary dimensions directly from the plan.

This is the assembled lateral strut in place. At this point I have dry-fitted the sub-assembly as it will need to be removed at least once before I am finished with it. The wood block insert at the center is a hard point for attaching the front strut.

Here you see one of the compression struts in pieces and the other assembled, along with the pre-formed axle-strut from the kit to which I have added a brass sheet attachment tab. I found a pair of springs left over from a Robart strut assembly that fit this model perfectly. You should be able to find something suitable at a GOOD hardware store. I chose more brass tube to provide a telescoping fit around the springs I had. The tube ends are squeezed flat in a vise, rounded with a file, and drilled out to fit the screws I'll be using.

I also added a block cut from leftover spruce spar stock inside the leading edge former. This provides an attachment point for the rear wire strut.

I made attachment tabs from scraps of brass sheet stock, slipped them over the main and rear wire struts, and used sheet metal screws to attach the assembly to holes drilled in those reinforcement blocks.

Here's the bare landing gear assembly dry-fitted in place. The screws are the ones that were supplied with the 4-40 rod ends, the keepers on the axles are 3/32" I.D. wheel collars, and the strut joints are wire -wrapped and soldered using ordinary electronic solder.

The main compression struts on this airplane were provided with streamlined fairings. The kit instructions suggest that you make these up from various strips of balsa sanded to shape. I was having so much fun playing with tubing that I dug around for a piece of the largest K&S streamlined aluminum tubing I could find, which just happened to allow a tight slip fit over the outside compression tube.

This is the outer fairing tube in place on the compression strut assembly. I pushed the outer brass tube with the spring inside it down through the aluminum, then fitted the lower (inner) compression tube up in from the bottom. This remains free to drop out until I put the rest of the assembly together.

This is the top of the right compression strut assembly screwed in place on the lateral strut, with a small amount of epoxy putty in place ready to be sanded to shape. I use Stits Lite Fill for jobs like this.

With the struts disassembled again I have sanded the epoxy to shape. The component at the top is the short upper auxiliary strut that extends diagonally up into the side of the fuselage. On the full scale airplane it is a load bearing member, but on this model I allowed it to ride free inside an opening in the fuselage side sheet.

This is the way the kit instructions suggest you fair out the wire struts. I have cut a strip of 1/8" x 3/8" balsa to length and used a narrow gouge to open a channel so it will fit tightly against one side of the front strut. I'll prepare a mirror image part to sandwich together with this one and enclose the wire.

I have assembled all the gouged-out balsa fairing strips with plenty of adhesive (I used thick/slow cyanoacrylate) and clamped each assembly with plenty of clothespins.

The next step is shaping the fairings. Here I have made a special sanding block from a scrap of 1/8" ply with 100-grit paper glued to it especially to do this shaping job.

The balsa fairings are all shaped and sanded smooth, ready for the struts to be added to the rest of the landing gear assembly. You'll get to see the entire gear assembly in place in a little while.

One Comment

  1. This is excellent, gear fabrication is always something I scratch my head about and you have shown some really useful techniques and materials that can be employed to make a really nice set of scale gear. Now I have to go find a good selection of little springs.

Comments are closed.