i have a new unstarted hirobo twinstar fuselage. i was wondering if anyone might have a set of scale landing gear for a twinstar or Astar they would want to sell.

dude its so easy to make yourself it is almost illegal!!!
just get some brakeline tubing from the auto partsa store, a butane torch and some silver solder with the acid cleaner. then cut, measure and bend to your hearts content. i make the skit tubes a bit larger in diameter than the crossmembers so the crossmembers can plug into the skid tubes after i drill the hole in the skid tubes for them. then a few drops of the cleaner(acid), heat the area with the torch, and just let the solder flow right in. dont use it sparingly either. works great. buy a lot of tubing as it takes a time or two to get it perfect sometimes. before you know it, you will be a landing gear building fool like me. course you could pay someone to do it for you as well. Jestr here does gear sets as do i. heres my twinstar with the home made gear.

drive a rotary, fly a rotorcraft

I did the opposite but it worked just as well. I make the skids out of 1/4 inch and the struts out of 5/16 and drilled the strut.

Total cost including the gas (i already had a torch) a tubing bender and 3 pieces of brake line from NAPA was about 25 bux.

There's some other photos in my gallery. After I was done and painted them, an a local autobody shop shot them with clear coat for free. Then I took some 200 grit wet dry sand paper, it comes in black and gluded some strips down to make the non skid, I'll post those pictures tonight.

Andy
AMA 77227
http://www.jaxrc.com

landing gear

ok guys, i am impressed. nice work. i guess i will give that a try. thanks again.

Hi guys, just had to drop in. I ordered the Twin Star today. I t will be my first scale. I like the home made gears that the doc makes. So if I dont like the ones that come with the kit I will go and try to make my own. Cant wait tillI get my Twin Star. Also, I like the scale mods, camera, searlight, that looks so cool. Later Rene.

chinnook,

i thinks these fellows have it down to a science.

That was my first shot. Emile and JestRR have it down to a science.

The one thing I can tell you is measure and cut what you need then practice bending and soldering with whats left till your comfy with it.

I sealed the ends with solder but you can use body filler as well. I also used the smallest they had to make the step, the real thing the step is a T bar but I just couldnt think of an easy way to do it so I went with round.

Andy
AMA 77227
http://www.jaxrc.com

copter doctor,

does the brake line hold up pretty good, or does it spread easy

Torque, I can tell you first hand how well the landing gear holds up that Emile (CopterDoctor) makes. I was flying his BK117 at a fun fly in Dalton, GA last September. The BK ran out of gas about 10 feet up in a hover. The engine gave no warning and just quit. I tried to auto it down but it lost lift in the blades due to the low head speed and weight of the heli. Down it came like a sack of concrete in the cut grass next to the runway. The only thing we had to do is put more fuel in the BK and bend the landing gear inwards about a 1/2 inch due to it absorbed all of the hard landing and we were back flying again. It was really cool that the gear did exactly what it was supposed to do. I am sure that when Emile reads this, he will be able to recall the incident as if it happened yesterday

Jay

I mounted an unpainted set that I wasn't too happy with to my Nexus and under normal flying they do just fine. I haven't bounced it or anything but I was doing normal flying around and some harder than normal landings to see how the solder joints etc held up and they worked just fine.

Andy
AMA 77227
http://www.jaxrc.com

It1pwr,

i bet you had a super pucker factor when someone elses scale machine decided to quit. glad it turned out well for you.

oh yeah i remember that. when i weld the joints, i do not use the solder sparingly at all. i let it flow into the joint till i am satisfied it is filled in pretty well. the brake line isnt hard to bent if it is the small tubing and it is okay to use if you make your landings nice and soft. after all we are flying scale right? and if you are a comercial pilot, you are supposed to be smooth.( idont tell my passengers that ) but if you have a bad enough landing, it wont bounce your heli unto its side like the springy stock pod n boom gear does. it absorbs and give like my bk did at dalton. it was however, no match for the volleyball net oh well, ya jast cant win em all eh???

drive a rotary, fly a rotorcraft

Ouch.

Mental note: Don't try to fly through volleyball nets when the Jet Ranger's done.

Emile, did you ever find any pictures of a Shuttle installed in a 30 size Funkey Jet Ranger?

Andy
AMA 77227
http://www.jaxrc.com

copter doctor

thanks for all the tips. it will be later in the summer before i will get time to try making a set of skid gear. i am working 10days on and 4 off. on the 4 days off the honey due list is killing me.

Here's the finished product and the subject I'm modeling.
Andy

Andy
AMA 77227
http://www.jaxrc.com