Hi All,

Pleased to meet you all. I am Warren L an up and coming Stunt flyer from Australia.  I have recently introduced my two daughters to Control line, both whom love building and flying control line with me.

I have a question regarding the Wheel Pants on the Brodak Vector 40 designed by Randy Smith which I am currently building.  The plans and instructions do not show too much detail about the actual shape of the finished Wheel Pants.  They only show an elevation view and _not_ a plan view.  I'm trying to decide how much taper to put on them and how thin they should be at the back when viewed from the top.

Looking at other Wheel Pant designs I can see most are fairly rounded at the front and taper at the back down to about 1/16" thickness when viewed from the top. When viewed from the side the thickness is about 1/4" to 3/8" thickness at the back.

Does that make sense? Does this sound like what the Vector 40 should be?  Any pictures whould be great!

Thanks in advance
Warren Leadbeatter
Sydney Australia

I second what Ty says.....do what you like the look of.... just make sure you can fit the wheels inside before you carve them too thin.  1/16 at the rear would be almost impossible to do.........they are not particulary long.

How does one wear out tires on a stunt plane? Roll it on the ground in the garage every day.

Naw, Just tow it behind your vehicle to the flying field and back a couple of times and you'll see.  (with a little negative elevator)

Peter White is the plans guru from Perth. You probably know my amigo, Dave Simons. Wheel pants are not altogether necessary, but they can work on grass, if the grass is cut short. I know your Aussie grass is a bit different than ours, but it should work. I'd be a little wary of spiders and snakes crawling up into the wheel pants, tho.

Hey, Tyrone: Larry Maltman had a seriously worn set of tires on his Legacy last week in Edmonton. He didn't tow it all the way from Winnipeg, either. The lighter tires just don't hold up all that well. PW has had to replace some Dave Brown tires, too. Mostly, it's the narrow ones. If you fly on pavement and use line tension to stop the model's rolling, it wears the tires a lot. If you just let it do its own thing, it won't wear the tires too much. It's very cool to stop the roll right in front of the judges...or your stooge, if you're flying alone.    Steve