Durafly Tundra v2, fixing broken undercarriage

UNDERCARRIAGE REPAIR

The Durafly Tundra (here in v2) is an excellent trainer. Understandably, Hobbyking, the origin of these planes, generally has low stock as they keep selling out. However, the scarcity of replacement bits and spare parts is sad. 

I broke a small part of the plastic undercarriage bracket. Annoyingly, it did not happen during a flight or landing, but later at home. I was trying to straighten the wires a little, when "bang"! A message for me to learn: always remove the wire U/C parts from the plane BEFORE trying to straighten them! Here's a picture of the bit that broke and also my solution. A small piece of plate steel, shaped, drilled and bent a little. 

You may notice that it broke at the weakest spot, through the centre of the bolt hole. So I cut the remaining plastic square, to enable the new steel part to butt up to it. The steel is quite thin and I cut it out of an angle bracket from an old shelf. I used a small nylon washer for the bolt, to help press it down in view of the spring. Let's see how long this will last. Hopefully, long enough for Hobbyking to get more plastic brackets back in stock! Another photo below:

WHEEL IMPROVEMENT - BETTER ROLLING

Another simple thing that I think is worth doing is to put M3 nylon washers on both sides of each wheel, such as here:

And also on the other side of the axle under the retaining nut, here:

These two washers on each wheel make a massive difference to how smoothly the wheels roll. They also seem to help with how they react on impact - seem to be a bit more damage resistant. 

Happy flying all!