Contemplating retracts on a 0.25 Spitfire

[holiday]

Hi Guys,

I am contemplating adding retracts to a Great Planes Spitfire GP/EP ARF 39".

Has anyone done this, is it a good idea??

I know that HobbyCity offers a retract ready 0.25 Spitfire (at a very attractive price), but it would seem that there might be problems getting replacment parts from the company in the event of one of my "exotic landings " (i.e. smashing the plane into the ground).

[BobRCnut]

Hyperion's 25e Spitfire includes retracts, and they're available separately. They retract outward. Might be worth a look...
http://www.allerc.com/product_info.php?products_id=3092

[BMatthews]

Grass field or paved runway?

Grass fields are hell on smaller model sized landing gears unless they are almost golf green like smooth even if you're a good pilot and never drop it in heavily. Just the tufts in the grass are like multiple hammer blows to the model when the wheels are scale sized for this size of Spitfire. For regular flying forget about retracting unless you like doing regular repairs to go with your regular flying.

[holiday]

I land on a gravel full size runway for crop dusters. It is true that on some of my landings the wheels kick up gravel or what not and it rips the covering on the bottom of the tail of my current plane (the plain i am currently flying is not a tail dragger). For take offs i use the narrow asfalt access road parralel to the runway, so theres no problem there (i know that someone will ask, so the reason that i dont land on the asfalt is that i am not a good pilot and i need a lot of space to land).