Dan asked would it be possible to make my kr into a tri gear but still leave the retracts in place or are the retracts to far forward for the cg to be right.
Dan The only way you can get the nose heavy enough to sit on a nose wheel is to move the main gear back. You are looking for the nose to carry about 25% of the total weight of the plane. It also makes sense to put the main gear some distance behind the aft limit of your flying CG. Otherwise it would be possible to have two passengers with low fuel and when you land your back to a tail dragger. (Maybe that is the way to arrive at the gathering. I'll have to put my tail wheel back on!) My conversion required that I remove the retracts including the mounting brackets. I filled the wheel wells in the bottom of the stub wings. I made a set of 90 degree brackets about 8 inches long and the height of the spar. They were mounted using the same holes that were in the spar for the retract brackets but they were mounted behind the spar instead of in front. I cut a slot in the bottom skin for the gear to fit and attached the gear to the brackets. The nose gear bracket supplied by Diehl fit in the center of the firewall at the very bottom. Two support braces run up and attach to your engine mount. Depending on what's in the way this can be difficult to fit. I already had an exhaust that was offset to one side to accept a tri gear bracket so I didn't have to do much adjusting. I did remove the braces from the nose bracket and re-welded them to the bracket after I was sure they fit properly. If anyone needs more info or pictures let me know. Mike Geoghegan N47MG humid...@gmavt.net
