Pico Moth Landing Gear

I was very disappointed in my first attempt at landing fear for my new Pico Tiger Moth, using J-B Weld and wire wrapping. As you can see, it was a bit of a sloppy mess.

I was sure I could do better. The new landing gear would use the same mounting system – with left and right halves slipping into aluminum tubes, held in place by a rubber band.

I decided to scrap the JB Weld and attempt to solder the new gear. Having a vague memory of having read somewhere that soldering piano wire requires acid flux, I bought a bottle from Ace Hardware and got to soldering. I’m using some brass tubing as an axle for my 2″ Dubro wheels. 0.047″ steel wire makes up the landing gears legs, and is soldered inside of the hub tubing. I made the gear in one piece, then cut it in half.

To keep the rubber band from sliding up off of the landing gear, I soldered tiny V’s of thin wire to the top of each leg.

The new gear is a big improvement over the original set, but it still looks too much like skinny piano wire.

I cut, shaped and painted some strips of balsa to create the rear fairings. To ‘beef up’ the front struts, I slipped a length of coffee stir, painted red, over them.

Here’s the final result: