Hi Sid, I don't want to come across as some sort of know it all or expert on KR landing gear because I have only moved the landing gear brackets from the front side of a KR2 spar/shear web to the aft side and installed new Diehl glass gear legs once on a KR2 to transform a taildragger to a trigear nose dragger. Reading what you have written in the top paragraph below leads me to think that you did not place the leading edge of the Diehl gear against the spar shear web if you had at least two more inches of aft movement of the main wheels. It sounds like you moved the top of the gear leg aft leaving the gear leg at the bottom edge of the bracket fully forward against the bracket to move the wheel two inches forward. If the glass leg is firmly against the bracket top to bottom there shouldn't be any way to move the wheel fore or aft. It is just where it's supposed to be. If you did place the leading edge of the glass gear flush against the bracket then the two inches you mentioned could only be gained if you were to move the bottom of the gear on the bracket flange aft and leave the top against the bracket I guess you could get some movement there. I'm not sure I would want to move the first bolt at the bottom closest to the shear web further aft out on the bracket but that may be structurally ok, I don't know that though. Maybe Mark Langford can tell us that. I have done a lot of composite work in my airplane building years so I know a few things that may work for you to salvage your current main gear. Wetted flox is considered structural. I would think you could wet your drilled holes in your fiberglass main gear with pure resin first then mix a resin rich flox mixture to fill your existing holes, let cure, then re-drill your holes to set the wheels where they need to be. At some point in the hole flox filling process stick tape over one side of the holes to form a wall on the bottom side of the holes to make sure the holes are filled properly from the top side. Use a tooth pick to gently stab, push, knead the wet mixture into the holes as it fills the holes to keep air out so you have a solid structure when it cures with no air voids. Don't forget to paint the walls of the holes with pure resin first so your flox mixture gets good adhesion to the walls. If it would make you feel better, after the holes are cured, sand the area down some and re-wrap with bid before drilling new holes. Use Cotton Flox NOT glass balls/microspheres. Just my suggestion to reuse your current landing gear.
Larry H Don't know what the moment for the elevator would be at 55 knots, but now I am somewhat sure there is plenty of authority at that tail. At the time I could have easily set the main wheels another 2 inches aft by choosing where to drill the holes in the gear leg. No where was there any direction as to exactly what the number should be. I went conservative regarding the elevator authority consideration. > > Sid Wood > Tri-gear KR-2 N6242 > Mechanicsville, MD, USA > >
