Started February 2, 2005
The Main Landing Gear is built up from steel tubes and attached at the fuselage fittings with bolts and attaches to the landing gear strut.
I followed the advice in the October 1997 Beartracks Newsletter to build up the landing gear. To start with, the fuselage was jigged up at the correct height (26" from the center of the bottom longeron to the center of the Axle). It was positioned to be level front to aft as well as level side to side. The bottom longeron between stations "B" and "C" is the reference points for making sure its level front to aft and the top cross tube at Station "O" was used as a reference to level the fuselage side to side.
The legs were cut off of the table that was used for making the fuselage, making it 6" tall. It was placed under the fuselage as a centerline reference and a place to mount the axles.
The landing gear is built by placing the axles in the correct position, with no Toe In or Toe out and they must be level and perpendicular the fuselage centerline. They must also be the proper distance apart from the centerline of the fuselage and at the proper location front and aft as per the plans. Here is the fuselage jigged up for landing gear assembly:
Here is the front leg in place, fitted and ready for tack welding:
The aft gear leg was then fitted and fish-mouthed to fit around the front gear leg at the axle. This took a lot of grinding and fittings to get it right. In fact, I ended up too short on the first one and had to do it over again, which is frustrating after all the work done at the top end to make the bushing fit correctly. Anyway, it was a do over, so be careful, it can be a bit tricky.
Once the aft gear leg was fitted to my satisfaction, I heavily tack welded it and then final welded both gear legs, top and bottom.
Here is the landing gear final welded at the axle:
The "U" shaped part gets welded to the inside end of the axle and the other two pieces are welded to the sides of the axle and to each side of the "U" shaped piece. Here is a picture of the completed axle with gear strut attachments welded on:
Per the plans, this was angled 30 degrees from level. Since I haven't made the gear strut yet, I will just temporarily bolt in a piece of electrical conduit to support the gear legs for now. Then I can put on the tires and roll it around the shop to make things a bit easier.
Well - here is a picture of Bearhawk #682 on its feet for the first time:
