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Bidule Nose Gear Improvements

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  • Bidule Nose Gear Improvements

    Here are some pictures of the new nose gear on my Bidule 55. I wanted something more foolproof than than either the factory gear or my clone of the factory nose gear, which never broke per se, but was a maintenance hog.

    The biggest problem I saw was the stock mounting boss/pivot. It has a small hole pattern and seemed guaranteed to torque out either its own mounting bolts or plywood from the firewall. The second concern was the way the stock nose gear knee added a long torque arm to the landing forces directed back to the servo. We don't have that anymore either.

    Initial flights are good. The system is a lot smoother functioning too because the soft plastic bearing is gone. There was some minor machine work involved in making this that I believe could be omitted with more time spent finding raw materials sized to fit together.

    The servo saver is also pictured, it is a 10 minute version of the machined aluminum one I made last summer ... but done in wood utilizing its excellent axial strength. Fast to make, simple to assemble, and rugged on landings.



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    Last edited by Dephil; 09-04-2017, 11:39 PM. Reason: Didn't realize I could make the pictures bigger til now.

  • #2
    Very, very nice!

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    • #3
      excellent work phil.

      Len Buffinton
      Team Horizon Hobby

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      • #4
        this is how the servo saver is built. for scale the latex surgical tubing is 1/2" ID, 3/4" OD and the dowel is 1/2" coated with graphite from a soft pencil. The ball ends are from the LOSI 1/5 scale truck, and they thread onto 5 mike mike screws with the heads cut off. Part number is LOSB5900 and it comes with a brutish servo arm for some unknown servo.

        The ball ends are $14 ... if anyone knows how to get them without the servo arm, that'd be the way to go.

        the screws have nicks ground in to them and are interference fit into the wood with thick CA as both the lube and the glue ... I think the holes were about .175 and the screws are 192.

        An enhancement that I would like to consider is adding a mechanical stop on the steering arm before the servo saver, probably using the crank arm on the gear itself. this could be cleverly designed so that the range of motion on the split dowel is never exceeded ...

        I would also add that the split dowel servo saver can be made in any size you want and it should work about the same. It's easy to adjust the length of the rods or the rubber to get the feel you need. Rubber can be obtained in this form up to quite large sizes so this should scale up as needed. If you need metal dowels, aluminum should only be 4 times heavier than wood so knock yourself out if you can't find a good close grained and hard dowel at your local hardware.
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        Last edited by Dephil; 09-04-2017, 11:43 PM. Reason: more info added.

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        • #5



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          ^^^ internal block glued in before drilling

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          bearing block ^^^ glued on


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          top of steering tube. plate is 1/4" or 5/16" baltic birch ply with tristock bracing above and below.
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          side view with extra 1/8 aircraft plywood (not lite ply) reinforcement. ... fuse sanded and holes in firewall capped and doped.
          Last edited by Dephil; 09-05-2017, 12:05 AM.

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