original ares

[John KruziK]

I have just been given an Ares , by a customer of mine, put together many years ago. Looks real good, never finished. It has 2 problems, first landing gear seems very flexy. I was thinking about removing them and installing blocks, I would  need to make a few half  ribs to support block. The second is the engine mounts seem to be to far back from nose ring. Non of the engines I have are long enough, old 35s, fox, enya, mac,  La 40, Etc. Was it normal to use a prop spacer? Maybe this would be a good start for electric power? Any way back to sanding. John

[scott matthews]

Hey John, my Brodak Ares has the motor mounts starting 1" back from the nose ring with balsa blocks between engine mount and nose ring. I also had to purchase a 3/4 long prop spacer from Brodak to put on the engine shaft to lengthen the crank shaft. The landing gear is connected to the I beam structure in the wing with J bolts. The gear does take a bit of abuse with landings in thick grass and I have had to straighten mine several times. I have thought of cutting the wheel pants off and increasing the tire dimension from 2" to maybe 2 1/2" to aid with take offs and landings, then maybe just making up spats to replace the wheel pants.

[Balsa Butcher]

Many designs from the era used a prop extension. They are still available from Fox Manufacturing in 1/2 to 3/4 extension size. The Brodak unit may be the same. Your Ares probably had one originally.

[MarcusCordeiro]

Can you mount the landing gear on the fuselage, I mean, one of those CF landing gears?
It could save you some work and I like the way it looks.

Marcus

[John KruziK]

I'll have to look for prop spacer. Was this plane designed around the fox35? Really like the idea of carbon fiber gear! I would have to modify wheel pants, they are a big part of the look of plane.Thanks

[PerttiMe]

I've been wondering of the kind of wheel fairings that some full-size Sukhoi SU-31s have would work on grass.

Links to a couple of photos, to demonstarate what I mean:
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2757/4295042029_1242af3bd2_o.jpg
http://www.airliners.net/photo/Adventia/Sukhoi-Su-31/1739998/L/

[Don Curry AMA 267060]

I have built two Ambroid kits of the Aries and put gear blocks in both. One with a three inch belcrank and one with a four inch. both had very severe interference with the front lead out.Just make sure of the lead out location before you add the landing gear blocks.
Don

[L0U CRANE]

Can you mount the landing gear on the fuselage, I mean, one of those CF landing gears?
It could save you some work and I like the way it looks.

Marcus

Marcus, I think you'd best do that from early in the model construction process. ...To make sure there is a sturdy enough structure to bolt it to...

You also just might hear some comments if you plan to fly it that way in the Classic event; the Ares wing gear and pants are very important features ID'ing the Ares... Classic allows many mods that might or might not have been used "within the era," but fuse-mounted gear seems to me to be a bit too far...

Regardless, if you don't plan to compete with it, or specifically to fly it in Classic, AND the fuse allows adapting a mount block, it's your model and your choice. Do what you feel you'll enjoy best.

[John KruziK]

I think the landing gear are beautiful, I just find them a bit floppy. They are attached to the I beam and move forward and back under the weight of plane. I dont know how covering will fair. Landing gear blocks should help, but with I beam wing how should i brace them. thanks

[scott matthews]

Covering tears on every landing ,I should have made balsa planking around gear with slot to let the landing gear have some play.

[john e. holliday]

If I remember right, there are half ribs around the landing gear at the surface of the wing.  They are slotted for gear movement.

[Serge_Krauss]

Bill shows a spacer in the original plans. That said, I should point out that the original Ares seemed intentionally a bit nose heavy, and with the light Fox .35 the spacer actually makes the plane more nose heavy. In the SSWF archives, you should be able to find my posts on this and the point in increased engine weight where this stops being true. With heavier engines, I'd probably use the spacer to preserve the authentic Ares appearance anyway. With light ones, you might profit by moving the engine forward. - SK

[EddyR]

The landing gear should not be loose. Billy's did not get loose till he had several hundred flights on the  original plane. Billy stopped using J-bolts around 1965 Get rid of the j-bolts and use the wire method. He shows how to do it in the Bob Hunt video where Billy builds a Ares. DO NOT USE THE J-BOLTS. Borrow the video from someone.
Ed

[Bill Little]

Like Ed said, lace the gear to the spar with brass wire.  I bought my brass wire at Wally World, it measures near 1/32".

There should be a 3/4" wide half rib, or front of a regular rib, where the gear exits the wing.  This gives a surface to adhere the silkspan (or silk, polyspan) to, and a groove is cut into that to allow forward and rearward movement of the wire.

BIG Bear
RNMM/AMM

[builditright]

here's a few pics to give you a look at what I had done on the Colossus prototype a few years ago.

[EddyR]

That is a much better way to mount the gear. I have used that method on all my larger I/beams for a long time. When I make the gear non removable it end up being to short.

[Bob Hunt]

The landing gear should not be loose. Billy's did not get loose till he had several hundred flights on the  original plane. Billy stopped using J-bolts around 1965 Get rid of the j-bolts and use the wire method. He shows how to do it in the Bob Hunt video where Billy builds a Ares. DO NOT USE THE J-BOLTS. Borrow the video from someone.
Ed

You could borrow it from someone, or you could order it from Robin's View Productions; it's still in production as a DVD. See more about it in the Vendors section under Robin's View Productions.

Bob Hunt

[MarcusCordeiro]

Well, having the DVD option, that's what I would do.
Bob's stuff is top notch, you can go wrong with the DVD.
I think landing gear design is just like a rim set to a car.
It's very difficult to actually replace a nice-looking stock set without making your car look like something out of "Fast anf Furious"...


Marcus