Landing gear

[Philip Wall]

Hi , Could you please advise which landing gear comes out best, premier of giant Sierra installation into a bates sea fury?

Regards hi lip wall.

[Dave Kellett]

Hi Phil,
Re your post asking for opinion's on retracts (Premier retracts or Sierra Giant scale) for a Jerry Bates 'Sea Fury''
All of the retract systems on the market these days have a plus and minus going for them. It is purely down to your own thoughts of what you want.
SGS are brilliant but as far as I know, if you should have the misfortune of a bad landing and sustain damage then you have to send them back to the USA for repair. This as you know can be a time consuming and expensive exercise
Premier Retracts, on the other hand also produce excellent systems tailor made for your project. The plus side for me is that they are a UK manufacturer who produce their system with larger air cylinders which makes them more reliable.
I will be using them for my Bates 'Sea Fury' when I get near to that stage.

I hope that this helps you.

Best regards

Dave.

[Philip Wall]

Thanks for that info Dave, I probably agree with you.

Cheers Phil.

[Trevor Wood]

Philip and Dave,

Good advice from Dave regarding Premier being UK based,however Dave Pearson and myself do have experience of several years use of Sierra units in both CARF Corsairs and P-47 Thunderbolts where these units have performed faultlessly and without issue.

FYI the units in my own 1/4 scale Sea Fury were custom built several years ago by the late Ray Slack including the double action legs which I believe the stock Sierra units do not have - however I would comment that the Sea Fury is a much heavier machine than either of the CARF models mentioned,being 32 kg versus 22kg and whichever retract manufacturer you use they should ensure the units are capable of taking this weight of model.

My Sea Fury has always landed heavy from day one with several leg collapses as a result - the ''experts'' have always commented on how it should be done, they may well be correct with their theories, but my own experiences tends to suggest that a relatively high wing loaded 32 kg warbird will never delicately float in and does tend to ''arrive'' somewhat - the key is to make the best job you can of it - my landings for example at Little Gransden were a whole lot better than at Cosford.

Best of luck with your own Sea Furies.

Regards Trevor Wood