This post is about Freewing retracts that are installed on Flightline P-38L and Flightline Tigercat. This post is NOT about retracts on Corsair or Spitfire (1.6 m) as they are bigger retracts. Technically speaking P-38L and Tigercat are FlightLine, but as far as I know Freewing and Flightline are the same company. Do any of you have the issue that when you land one retract will not go down, but when you check the retract afterwards it works fine. I will land on 2 instead of 3 wheels, and after scraping my airplane, I will take it to the bench in the club and the retracts work. It happens to me often enough that I decided to write this post. I accidently discovered what probably causes them to fail randomly. I reported it to Motion RC, but I was told I am the only one who has this issue, and no one else reported any issues with these retracts. Here is a link to YouTube video that I made for Motion RC (https://youtu.be/MZi_opK7884). At the end of the video it shows that the shaft moves up and down inside of the rectangular nut. This much movement is not normal on a new airplane that was flown only twice. This explains why the retract will sometimes work and sometimes will not work. With this much movement there is hardly any thread to catch inside of the nut. Put a regular nut on a screw and see how much movement you will get. Retracts on my airplanes from Motion RC many times failed to go down and I had to land with 2 instead of 3 wheels, damaging my airplane. I am an engineer in case it matters.
Is anyone else having similar problems with this retracts.
Is anyone else having similar problems with this retracts.
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