Which is best??

[ljcub]

Hi all,

I live In a rural area of Western Australia and have limited areas where I can operate my cub from. My options are; a large (very large) grass field which is too long and bumpy for take off or landing with stock gear, a large area of flat soft sand (similar to the beach) or a very rocky and bumpy gravel road which is a major struggle to get airborne on and a nightmare to land on.

I had stock landing gear but then bought a pair of Du-Bro 2.5 inch low bounce wheels however this has not helped much with this kind of terrain.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what size wheels I should use and what modifications I would have to do to the axel for the new wheels. I was also thinking that Mabey skis would work on the soft sand?

Any help is greatly appreciated,

Luke

[blue320]

If I were you, I'd go for the soft sand with 3" balloon tires. The skis might be more of a problem than help. I use the 3" when flying on low cut grass soccer fields around my area. They do add weight but my flights are stable.

[flydiver]

I'd say it's pretty much the largest tires you can get on there and hope it works.

If the grass is long enough to catch and cushion the landing you can hand launch and just ditch it in the grass without landing gear. It'll fly a tad better without LG as you'll lose some weight, some drag, and it's less likely to rip the battery box out.

BUT--the wing struts are liable to catch and that could be a problem. Maybe the Velcro attached method? There's a post somewhere. I didn't use struts (carbon rod reinforced) so didn't bookmark it.

[ljcub]

Flydiver, the large grass field is a bit too Bumpy and rocky to try to land wiithout gear and within a few landings I would probably have done some serious damage to te front end if the plane. I might just go down to LHS and get 3 or 3.5 inch tires and try that but I'm not sure how good it will be its really bumpy! I was contemplating making a runway or something I don't know how I would do it but it would help a lot..

[realbob]

ljcub, you cannot buy some roskdust in pouches and put some on the field to make a lauching and landing site? Kind of 8x20-30 feet? It is not expensive and when it rains it gets flat and nice...

May not be your field, but maybe owner would not mind.

[ljcub]

Realbob what do you mean by roskdust??

A Small runway of some sort would be a great benefit..

[flydiver]

I fly out of a park that gets regular mowing. The grass is still an issue and we tend to look for areas that have been pounded down. Small wheels catch.
The park put in a cricket pitch. It's about 6 feet wide and 50 feet long covered in short AstroTurf. It's a very nice smooth surface for take-off. It's also quite hard to actually stay on something that skinny and in dozens of attempts I've only been able to land on it once. So, a landing strip needs to be pretty good size to be useful.

One of the wheel tricks is to glue/epoxy appropriate sized brass rod bits onto the landing gear to form axles as needed depending on the wheel axle hole size. Then hold them on with a wheel stopper. You can get all of it at a LHS.

[ginginho]

May 4, 2012 16:34:26 GMT 1 flydiver said:

IThe park put in a cricket pitch. It's about 6 feet wide and 50 feet long covered in short AstroTurf. It's a very nice smooth surface for take-off. It's also quite hard to actually stay on something that skinny and in dozens of attempts I've only been able to land on it once. So, a landing strip needs to be pretty good size to be useful.

Fly, you need to convince them to go the whole hog and put in a cricket square (multiple pitches alongside eachother). Plenty of room! ;D

Nicest landing strip I've ever used but don't stack it when the groundkeeper is watching.

[flydiver]

On the other side of the flying area there are 2 Astroturf playing fields. On a quiet afternoon I went and tried one. Very nice take-off. Landing was kinda nerve wracking though as there are high chain link fences on both ends, and the area is surrounded with trees and light poles. Coming in was tricky.

[geoff2474]

Hi Guys

I posted a while ago that I never use landing gear. I fly from my own fields which I grow for hay, so they vary from 40mm to 400mm grass height.
After too many nose-overs I decided to hand launch without gear. Landing approach involves bringing the plane to near stall speed and just floating down onto the grass. I find a bit of wind helps as I can then fly at almost zero ground speed and just lower the plane onto the grass.
This works fine for all my planes, the SC which gets most flying time has not suffered any damage for the last six months of flying. The Radian has such a low stall speed that it just sits on top of the grass.
I did fly from a local park the other week and was pleased to find that I could take off and land with gear fitted, I thought maybe I had forgotten how.

[realbob]

May 4, 2012 15:16:28 GMT 1 ljcub said:

Realbob what do you mean by roskdust??

A Small runway of some sort would be a great benefit..

Sorry, I meant rockdust. I don't know if that is the good term in english, but in french it is poussiere de roches, so rockdust.
I just found it is called stonedust.
Look here: www.performance-vision.com/airline/index-WhatsNew.htm
They are running on stonedust.

[flydiver]

Time for a serious intervention:
www.trexlerballoonwheel.com/

These are in a class by themselves, maybe worth it for you.

[toff]

Just re-read this post.....Geoff, where in lincs are you? I spend most of my holidays in mablethorpe, are you anywhere near?

[geoff2474]

Hi Toff
We live right at the bottom of Lincolnshire, at a place called Sutton St Edmund. If you want to look it up we are between Peterborough and Wisbech.
By the way we have had some gusty days lately, but also some good calm ones as well.
Geoff

May 18, 2012 22:33:19 GMT 1 toff said:

Just re-read this post.....Geoff, where in lincs are you? I spend most of my holidays in mablethorpe, are you anywhere near?