I’ve officially had it with hot glue. When the weather gets hot, hot glue loosens up and my planes start shedding parts.
The other day (103° F) I took my Pico Moth to a nearby park to fly. When I lifted it out of the trunk, the landing gear – nominally attached to the plane with hot glue – stayed behind. A little later, when I flew my profile F-22, I noticed the Rx – hot glued inside the fuse – was rattling around loose. BLARG!
So it was time to find a better way to attach the gear on my moth. I ended up using a drill bit to carve a channel for the front tube. I set the back tube down in the slot for the stock landing gear. I epoxied both tubes in place.
A more detailed look at the construction of the landing gear is here. We’ll see if this holds up a little better.