A friend of mine who is 84 or so and flew recon P-38's in WWII was over looking at my project the other day and we got to talking about the landing gear. (taildragger). I mentioned that I had thought about replacing the composite gear with a taller aluminum gear, but since the wing is built, etc. and concerns about forward visibility, I had dropped the idea for now. He had this idea and I wonder if anyone has tried it or talked about it. Imagine you cut off the bottom part of a Grove al gear say 3 or 4 inches above the bend from vertical where the axle bolts on. Imagine a sleeve that is welded to the al part that slips over the composite part and is bolted and floxed on using the original holes. The sleeve is made thick enough at the leading and trailing edges to be shaped to a good aerodynamic form. I can visualize that it would be easier to fair in with wheel pants, etc. Question : The composite gear is bolted and floxed to the alum brackets. I suspect it would be a bugger to remove, especially through a landing light hole. Is there a process for removing them? My friend is in the process of building a plane of his own design that basically uses a morphed VP-1 fuselage mated to some morphed KR-2 wings. Dan
