David Ridgeon Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 I am building my BH Travelair and in the kit are some steel bolts for mounting the undercarriage. This gives me cause for concern as many people have mentioned that the undercarriage needs beefing up. This is not the wire type undercarriage its made of thick sheet aluminium in two parts. Do I need to beef up the fuselage? I have considered getting hold of some nylon bolts the same size as the steel bolts provided for mounting about 3 or 4mm, do you think they would snap ok and save dammage to the fuselage on a heavy landing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flytilbroke Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 I tried the nylon bolt idea first, they snapped and the undercarrage then damaged the wings Then the steel bolts. The problem I encountered doing that was that the mounting tore out and undercarraige ripped through the covering and damaged wood in the wings. Leaving both fuselage and wings damaged. After this happened I then strengthened the mounting by extending it as much as I could to spread the load. I used liteply backed by thin birch ply applied internally. Luckily? i did not have any further problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flytilbroke Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 Just remembered I also replaced the ali undrcart with a piano wire type due to the ali being too soft. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Scott-hake Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 I reinforced the under side of fuse at front with ply and then used j perkins large wire u/c held on with sadle clamps and self tappers .I have flown for 3 years on 2 travel air's with this set up . The u/c is wider and more stable than standard . This set up is almost bullit proof it has lasted literally hundreds of flights (3 to 5 flights most sundays in all conditions for 3 plus years) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Ridgeon Posted February 12, 2009 Author Share Posted February 12, 2009 Thank you flytilbroke your experience is appreciated much obliged. Thank You Jeremy Scott-hake for your j perkins undercarriage suggestion. It seems difficult to beef the inside of the fuselage as access is quite difficult, any suggestions on this would be usefull? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Richards Posted February 12, 2009 Share Posted February 12, 2009 It is easier to do when the U/C block as pulled out. I did mine after it broke not sure how you would do it on a new model. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flytilbroke Posted February 12, 2009 Share Posted February 12, 2009 Now that I have had some Repair and Build experience I think I would open up the bottom of the fuselage and build in the extra structure required. Triangular stock fitted where possible then the stronger sheeting, thickened again over the mounting area to take either screws for wire, or "blind" nuts for bolt on GRP undercarraige. Just a surmise mind, as I doubt I will want another BH type as I have moved on to other models. At least one of which has had some strengthening treatment before I used it. Have fun Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Ridgeon Posted February 15, 2009 Author Share Posted February 15, 2009 Thanks Flytilbroke Im going to do some beefing up. Your thoughts are appreciated. Anyone else got any ways of doing this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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