[gbanger]

Hey Steve,
If you are running low on profanities, I am more than happy to sling you a couple... I've got shitloads!!!

[Flying fisho]

Working at the Tax Office on the phones listening to customers every workday has improved my repertoire of expletives. The ATO & I have been called everything you could imagine plus some.

[smuzz]

Thanks Gazz and Wayne ... if this thing is landed heavily again, I'll be paying you a visit.

Angus - yes mate, it's way too difficult to explain in text what needs to be done, I'll run you through it at the field if you like. Be prepared though (you might want to see Gary and Wayne first) because you've got to pull the unit completely apart and grind parts of it away - even including re-shaping the cir-clip that goes on the end of the undercarriage leg. It's a humdinger!

[ConcreteTurtle]

Cheers Steve,

I'll check it out next time I see you at the field. I took the retract apart completely to replace the plastic HK trunnion with the metal one, you are so right that it's a fiddly bugger. Mine seized similarly, but I assumed that I'd borked the position of the bar on the worm drive when I put it together.

The highlight was getting the nosewheel steering clevis back onto the steering arm. Going to have to requisition some better coarse language before I attempt that again!

[smuzz]

For others that have this model ...

The nose gear retract has been giving me and others on RCGroups good reason to get good and mad - the problem being that once you open one and fiddle with it, it's never the same as it tends to jam somewhere between fully extended and fully retracted. It's a bit of a shame, because in every other respect this model is absolutely outstanding.

As mentioned in previous posts, I replaced the trunnion in mine with a metal one because the plastic one lost its axles when Junior didn't realise that this plane doesn't float down to the ground like the PZ Trojan. Anyway, a couple of retract units later, I decided to dig deep and get an E-flite unit to fix this problem for once and for all ... well, it wasn't as easy as that. When the E-flite retract arrived it turned out to be completely different in shape and form to the stock unit. If I end up using it, it will require loads of cutting, dremeling, digging and swearing. The jury is still out on that one.

In the mean time, I got a complete stock replacement unit (with plastic trunnion) from HK and installed that in a 10-minute job last night - I just wanted to fly it again. Only two flights on it today, but those and the multiple ground-tests I've also done have been perfect. I'll leave it at that for a while and see how things turn out.