Whoops! There Goes Another Landing Gear....
The slender carbon fiber (CF) landing gear used on micro heli's often breaks. A package of two landing gear costs around 4.99 and there's no guarantee that it isn't going to break the very next time you fly. Fortunately 80% of the time you can fix the landing gear for next to nothing.
Just glue the parts back together with cyano-acrylate (CA) glue and make a bootie from heat shrink tubing to re-inforce the joint.
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Typical break in the landing gear. |
Before you put glue on the broken end of the strut where it touches the landing skid—which is where the LG usually breaks—you need to make the 'bootie' from heat shrink tubing. Cut it to fit over and beyond the boss on the skid and make two holes near one end that the skid can slide through.
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A piece of 3/8" heat shrink - two holes on each side. |
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Slide the bootie over the skid. |
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Bootie in place. Now a drop of CA on the strut.... |
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... CF rod and broken skid together in the bootie. |
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Shrink tubing with heat and allow glue to dry well. |
Mash down the bootie on the bottom of the skid when it is still hot so the skid will lie flat on the ground.. The tubing prevents free air circulation that would otherwise cure the glue joint so let it dry for several hours before flying. This repair is about as strong as the original part. You can redo it if the landing gear breaks in the same place again.
Although this landing gear was removed from the helicopter to make these photographs it is easy to perform this repair without removing it from the heli.