Bob Did not have any plans for the Eclipse.
Allen Brickhaus did the pencil drawing from the original Eclipse, Watt Moore did a great job working with Allen and I cadding the plans. We all worked very hard on the plans until they were right. They are full size and the Eclipse is a big airplane. We get no profit from AMA's sale of the plans but we wanted them as good as we could get them. So others could build and enjoy the Eclipse. Besides 35 bucks is nothing compared to cost of building and finishing a model. When I was at the NATS last year I went over to the plans services at the museum to check them out. They turned out very nice.
As far as the gear goes I used a larger engine than Bob, PA65 compared to a 45. I swing a much larger prop 13 x4 Bolly. In order to get the ground clearance I needed, the gear had to be longer, as a result the main gear shot forward and the nose gear shot backwards reducing the landing gear footprint. I also went with 5/32 gear wire because the 1/8 inch gear wire was insufficient. Not to worry the gear works well and the clearance with the prop has not been an issue during the past two years of competition. I fly off of grass field at old Neddy here in the Chicago area and Beefy gear is what I wanted. Some have suggested I shorten the prop diameter and up the pitch so I can use shorter gear. My gear is interchangable and it can be done with out harming the airplane. But I wanted to use a a powerplant and prop combo I know would work ---and it did. Any questions send me an e-mail
Topic: Bob Gialdini's Eclipse (Read 3132 times)