I agree with eliminating the landing gear entirely. When we were designing the TuffBaby for use at the KidVenture circles at Oshkosh, we put everything on tope of the flying surfaces, bell crank, push rod and control horn. The bottom of the model is pretty smooth, and with making sure the prop stops in a horizontal position, it slides right in on landing, and nothing can catch on or get caught up in the controls.
Type at you later,
Dan McEntee