And I’m back at the Jug again…! I received the new struts and wheels a few weeks ago, just didn’t have the time to work on the plane and I also got distracted by some side projects.

The new gear, Robart 3/8″ offset RoboStruts with Robart diamond thread wheels (3-1/4″):

Unfortunately, after puzzling everything together I found out this setup also didn’t fully retract into the wing – the struts were protruding on the bottom instead of through the top of the wing. I spent a few nights measuring and tweaking and came to the conclusion I had to rotate the retract rails a bit to get the retracts and wheels to sit a little deeper into the wing. Lowering them wasn’t an option, because that would weaken the structure of the wing too much. Still, the struts stick out a tad but that’s something I can live with (or something I have to live with I guess). Also, because I’ve tilted the whole assembly by two degrees, I’ve created a positive camber in the wheel stance. It’s the best compromise I could come up with and in the end the wings just aren’t thick enough for retractable scale struts and wheels, certainly not with the wheels retracting before the main spar (the actual scale location would be further back where the wing is thicker, but that would require you to cut through the main spars and this would complicate the build even more). Anyhow, I’m happy with how it turned out. These struts and wheels are going to look great (even more if I can get the doors to fit as well later on). Here you can see the gear retracted in the wing:

And this is with the gear out. It’s hard to see but the struts should sit at 85 degrees because of the 5 degree dihedral, but due to my altered setup they are positioned at 83 degrees when lowered. Furthermore, alignment is spot on:

And here you can see how the struts still protrude a little (note that the balsa wing sheeting still has to go on):

I have made a little vid to show the retracts in action from different angles:

When I was satisfied with the setup, I glued the rails in place with 30-minute epoxy. Now I can finally continue with the rest of the wing (mostly sheeting), before starting with the other half. Final assembly of the retracts will be done when both wing halves are finished and joined, so I can align the struts (equal camber, toe-in / tracking and general aligment such as height and forward angle).