Original Posted By: "del magsam"
Del,Back in my "formative years" (mid 60's) , I had a neighbor that was workingon semi-composite homebuilt (Ron Scott -- now one of the Sport Avia.Assoc.board) His plane became known as "Ol' Ironsides" -- it had a homebuiltfiberglass spring landing gear that he made by building a curved box mold,filling it with resin & glass filament (he had nails on each end of the mold& manually ran the fibers from a nail on one end of the mold to the other)After cure, he bandsawed this 6" wide slab into (2) tapered landing gearlegs (4" wide at the top & 2" wide on the bottom.Tail springs should be a whole lot easier -- just bundle up the carbon rods(or??) till you get the deflection you want -- or start with an oldcomposite leaf spring from one of the newer Corvettes!! & cut it down(shades of B.H.P.!!;-)Mike C.Pretty Prairie, KSP.S. Scotty also made his own fiberglass sheets (instead of plywood) forcovering his wings & fuselage (2 ply of 6 oz. cloth on a waxed masonitetable) -- the name "Ol' Ironsides" came from finding his then 6 year old boypounding on the side of the fuselage with a hammer!! (Anyone thought aboutfiberglass for the wing leading edge -- as opposed to cardboard??)----- Original Message -----