Great Planes Revolver 60 Landing Gear Repair Series: part 1
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 ก.ย. 2024
- The Great Planes Revolver 60 ARF landing gear is not so great! The landing gear is poorly designed and is weak, breaks easily. I’m not the only person noting this. Many discussions and reviews on RC forums agree, the landing gear design is poor and a serious flaw of this otherwise beautiful sport plane. In this video series I figure out best way for me to fix mine after it failed.
I was lucky that this plane was not severely damaged when the landing gear broke off and the RC Plane skid across the runway. I was coming in for what believe was a relatively smooth landing, and the landing gear snapped off! As the plane slid down the runway the gear got caught up below the fuselage and broke holes in a few spots on the bottom of the fuselage. My repair solution is to replace the tiny plywood mounting plate supplied in the ARF with a larger plate reinforced with aluminum sheeting. I also replaced the cheep 2 piece landing gear from Great Planes with a solid one piece Dubro Landing gear. This plane is powered by an awesome Saito FA-91 glow engine.
Maybe you will find this interesting or possibly helpful if repairing similar issues on your RC plane.
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Very good video. I think the aluminium is overkill. After epoxying the plywood on, just fibreglass the joints and over lap to the firewall. Paint on epoxy mixed with Isoprophyl(sp) alcohol, smoothed with an old credit card is enough. JMHO. Thanks for the vid and steps you took. Cheers.
Thanks, ya the fiberglass is a good idea. That would have been a good option. The plane is very weak at the firewall, they use only a few small balsa lengths that t-bone into it and very thin balsa sheeting. fiberglass around the entire front end would be useful.
I got my revolver second hand but never been flown converted mine to brushless first flight same thing smooth landing rolled 2 feet and there goes the landing gear I fixed mine with 30min epoxy
That's amazing, sorry that it happed to you also. Its a great plane otherwise. I'm not sure if Great Planes is still making kits, but if they are I hope they do better. Glad you were able to fix yours.
Instead of using aluminum, could you use fiberglass instead and run the fiberglass from where the landing gear mounts then down along the front of the firewall, essentially like you were going to use the aluminum. There will be more surface area holding with fiberglass. The aluminum is only as strong as the bolts holding it in the firewall. The bolts may tear out of the firewall easier than a layer or two of fiberglass. Just a thought.
Hi. That is a great idea. The fiberglass would be strong and easier to install. I didn’t consider using it. My thought on using the plate of aluminum is that it would add a less flexible base, sandwiched between the gear and the wood, almost like a footing. But your fiberglass idea would be similar and have a nice finish. I think yours is a good suggestion. Thanks for commenting, I hope it helps others as well if they have a similar problem.
Use nylon nuts so the gear shears off instead of the mounting plate.
That is a good tip. Thanks.
@@JamesRCPlaneTech I bought mine second hand. It had an issue with the gas tank. It was a PERFECT landing. The mounting plate was ripped off. I fixed it with 1:30 epoxy and added nylon bolts. Had another dead stick due to a similar issue. TERRIBLE landing as I was too low for a go-around but too fast for landing. Bounced it 3 times, gear sheared off because of the bolts, and no fix was needed.
Ya the original design was pretty bad, weak. Sounds like you have a good solution. I went the opposite direction and perhaps made it “too strong”. Hopefully I wont hit so hard as to rip it off again.
Thanks for this very informative video. I've been eyeing the Revolver for some time now. It's been out of stock from Tower forever, and now it's back in stock again but with a whopping $100 price increase. I remember the price was originally around $269 before Hobbico went bankrupt. Not sure if the new restock has any improvements to the landing gear area, I highly doubt it. It's a shame because this is an attractive ARF with solid foam core wing and is a solid performer, but they under-engineer the landing gear structure, which is one of the most import area of any model.
Hello, you may be able to find the Revolver on ebay. Thats where I picked mine up. I read about the weak landing gear before I purchased mine and didn’t take it too seriously. But as soon as I landed it ripped off. If you do buy one try to reinforce it. Other than the weak landing gear its a really nice looking and flying plane. I find that it’s also helpful to get a fresh bottle of thin CA glue and try to add it to any joints possible on and ARF to help strengthen it. Good luck, I hope you find one and that it works out for you. Thanks for the comments!
Believe it or not, the same thing happened the landing gear on my Great Planes Escapade 61 a few years ago. It happened on the maiden flight at our grass runway flying field. I came down very gently to land and to my surprise the landing gear ripped out from the bottom of the fuselage. I was so disappointed, but I did get it fixed and I'm still flying that plane years later. Your repair video was really good.
I got one of these planes. What motor do you use? Also I need a cowling, do you know anybody selling one because all the suppliers seem to be out of stock.
Im using a Saito 91 four stroke. Check the specs, its a 60 class plane so 60 2 stroke or bigger as well. Ya, finding a cowl will be hard, Great Planes is not around anymore, but you my find one online shopping or maybe ebay.
If you dont have the manual you may still be able to download it, its helpful as well.
Also, you may be able to find a similar cowl you could modify, if you get the measurements close, they are similar, so another 60 size sport plane cowl could work, just paint it
@@JamesRCPlaneTechWhat cowling would you suggest?
Honestly, I don’t know. Maybe see what is on some websites and see if they look close, hopefully they will have measurements . I just typed in “60 size rc plane cowling” and stuff came up, maybe something could be found. Also try ebay.
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