The landing gear was a somewhat time consuming project for me. Probably because of the thickness of the tubing used (slow filing) and I was taking my time to make sure I didn't screw any of it up. Especially the sreamlined tubing since it is getting harder to get and is expensive. It is a very good feeling to get the airplane on its own legs. I have covered construction of several of the fittings shown on this page in previous pages so here I will just show how they were installed.

I started by installing the aft landing gear fitting. This is a wood block I made to properly space the two parts of the fitting apart. The big notch goes around the longeron.

Here I am clamping the two fittings to the block and bolting them to it.

Here the fitting is placed onto the longeron insuring the bolt hole for the landing gear attach bolt is aligned vertically with the longeron center line.

A side view of the setup. In this picture you can see a piece of metal between the blocks I had to use as a shim to get the correct distance between the fittings.

A view from the inside. Here you can see the small modification I made to the fittings so they would be anchored to the crossmember. According to the plans these ends are just kind of left hanging.

This is the front landing gear / flying wire attach fitting trimmed to be welded to the longeron and crossmember.

I used a 3/8" threaded rod to align the front and rear landing gear fittings.

Because the front landing gear fitting uses a 1/2" bolt and the rear fitting uses a 3/8" bolt the front fitting is too large for the threaded rod. I got some thin walled brass tubing from a hobby shop to close the gap. Here you can see  it still isn't that great a fit.

I cut this little ring out of the brass tubing to insert between the threaded rod and the brass tubing inserted into the tubing to further close the gap. (Sorry about the photo quality but you get the idea).

Here you can see that the fit between the fitting and the threaded rod is much better.

These are the four bushings that are needed to build the landing gear legs. The long ones go on the front leg of the landing gear.

Here the front busing is held in place with a bolt and the landing gear leg is fitted to it. The leg sweeps forward slightly so you can't just fit it perpendicularly.

Here the tubing has been fitted to the bushing but the ends have not been tapered in yet.

After fitting the bushing I fit the other end of the tube to the axle. I use the electrical tape to mark the proper distance from the axle end. I stays put and provides a nice sharp line.

This photo shows the alignment of the forward landing gear leg with the axle. It is hard to see but there is a line drawn down the center line of the axle (another reason I like to mark things with tape).

Here I have the front and rear legs of the landing gear fitted to the axle. Using this jig I borrowed made things soooo much simpler. Thanks Keenflyer.

This picture show the fit of the two legs where they meet at the axle.

Just a shot of the forward landing gear leg tack welded and with the end tapered to blend with the bushing.

The next step was to make the plates that support the aft leg of the landing gear. I began by drilling two holes in this plate that were the same size as the aft bushing.

Next I trimmed them so they would fit onto the bushing. Then I traced the shape of the tube onto the plates and trimmed them. The oval one goes on the aft portion and the one with the squared off end goes between the bushing and the landing gear tube.

This is what they look like after they have both been trimmed to fit onto the tubing. That bottom one looks like some kind of tool or weapon.

Here is how the inboard fitting looks as it will be installed.

I used these two pieces of spruce capstrip to maintain the correct distance from the fittings to the plates in the previous pictures.

Here everything has been welded  together.

Next was to install this strap over the bushing .

I started by clamping the strap to the tube and then tack welding it at the bottom.

I bent the strap around the bushing by applying a little heat and pushing it with a piece of wood, making sure the edges of the strap stay aligned with the plates.

Here the strap has been bent around and tack welded.

A side view of the strap after tack welding.

This is the side view after welding.

This is the inboard plate after welding.

And a view of the aft end after welding.

Here both legs have been tack welded on both sides.

I this photo I am starting to line up the crossemeber that contacts the rebound pad. Some people use a single piece of tubing to go from one side to the other and then cut it in the middle. I didn't have a piece that long so I had to use the method shown in the following pictures.

I started by making sure the tube was level,  square with the fuselage and that both tubes were aligned with each other.

Then I took a smaller diameter tube that I had placed inside one of the tubes and telescoped it into both tubes and tack welded it to them.

The final tube to fit was the streamlined tube. This is a photo of the end of the tube that matches up with the axle. It is important to leave enough space between the streamlined tube and the round tubes so that the inside of the cluster can be welded later. It is kind of a tight spot.

These are the ends of the streamlined tubes where they get welded to the crossmember. If doing it again I would leave the ends a little longer because when you taper them over to join the round tube for welding they come up a little shorter than I would have liked.

All of the tubes have finally been fitted and tack welded ready for final welding.

This is the axle after trimming it flush with the streamlined tubing.

Here the axle has been finish welded to all of the tubes. All that's left on this end is the plate that covers the axle end. If I were doing this again I would leave more room between the streamlined tubing and the round tubing. Kind of tight to weld in there.

This shows how I started closing up the axle. Not much to it really, just tack a plate onto the streamlined tubing along the center line.

Next is to bend it over onto the axle. After that just heat the edges and bend them down around the axle.

Here I am starting the wrapper on the inboard side of the crossmember. This one has the sharpest turn of all. I began by tack welding one end on just like on the other straps.

Next I applied a little heat and bent the wrapper around the end of the tubes making sure it stayed snug around the end. Then I just tack welded the loose end to the tube.

With the wrapper held firmly in place I formed the edges of the strap to fit the contour of the tubes they were overlapping. All that's left is to shrink the center portion.

Using a little bit of heat and taking my time I gradually shrank the wrapper around the tip of the tubes.

Here is a view of one side of the strap after finish welding. In this picture you can somewhat see how the streamlined tubing is tapered to meet the round tubing.

A shot of the strap where it overlaps the streamlined tubing.

A view from the other side of the tubes. In this photo you can see how the streamlined tubing is tapered in a little better.

This is the start of the strap for the bushing part of the landing gear. Basically the same steps as in the other straps.

This is the strap bent over the bushing as the first step.

Here the strap has been formed over the bushing and flush with the crossmember.

In this photo the strap has been formed to fit the tubes and tack welded.

One shot of the strap finish welded .

A side view of the strap.

One more view.

This is a picture of how I fitted the rib on the landing gear (after the fact). I used two pieces of tubing cut the correct length to space the rib from the longeron, clamped the rib in place and then welded it on.

This is the beginning of fitting the brakes. After determining the proper spacing from the end of the axle I made sure the holes were oreinted in the proper direction to install the brake caliper the way I wanted it and tack welded the plate in place.

This picture shows how I oreinted the brake caliper. After lots of contemplation and trial fitting I decided to face my brakes toward the front. I felt they would be easier to fair into the wheel pants in that position and it would give me the most clearance for mounting.

In this photo you can see the spacer that places the wheel the proper distance to make the disc fit correctly.

This just shows how the disc fits with the spacer installed.

This is the entire assembly put together as it will be installed..

Same thing... differnent view.

Here we are, two thirds of a tripod. All that is left is to get the tailwheel mounted..

I decided to use a taperd rod type of tailspring. Since I had already welded in the plans type tailspring mount I had to come up with my own mounting system. To make it fit I had to have the end of the spring milled as shown. Here I am leveling the spring to mark it for drilling the hole for the mounting bolt.

I used the mounting tube hole and some chalk line chalk to mark where I needed to drill the mounting hole. This is before I had it milled (just checking to see if the technique would work).

I didn't have any tubing of the thickness I wanted and didn't want to order a foot of tubing and pay shipping for it so I decided to take to pieces of tubing and weld them together to get what I wanted. You can see the holes in this picture for the mounting bolt and the hole to clear the bushing in the tailwheel mount.

This is the tube after welding the two pieces together.

To keep the tailspring from twisting in case all of my landings aren't perfect (they will be of course) I installed a bushing which rests on the flat milled into the tailspring.

This is the bushing welded in but before trimming to the final length.

Here all of the components of the tailspring mount are installed before welding. The fitting to hole the aft part of the mount in place is partly fitted but hasn't been trimmed to the final length.

This is what the fitting that holds the aft tube looked like before I bent the tab over and welded it.

This is the top view of the aft tube mounting fitting after welding the tab down and welding the fitting into the fuselage.

Here both mounting tubes have been welded onto the fuselage. I know... the bolt isn't long enough. I just stuck one in that I had until I can get one the proper length.

You may have noticed in a couple of previous photos that there was a cover welded onto the verticle stabilizer spar (that up and down tube at the end of the fuselage).  I didn't think there was enough clearance between it and the tailspring so I cut it off, timmed the tube and made another cap.

This is the spar cap after welding it on.

This shows how much clearance I have now between the tailspring and the verticle stabilizer spar. I think it should be enough. If the spring flexes down enough to contact it I have REALLY screwed up.

This is a view of the tailspring and tailwheel after all of the assembly is completed.

Same thing but from a different angel. Now my wife says I have a go-cart to push around!