I have a Mirage coming sometime next week from another ezone member. (Thanks ezone!)

Anyway, I'm a little scared about launching and landing it. So, I was wondering if anyone has tried to ROG a Mirage before? I was thinking just installing some basic tricycle gear setup on the Mirage and that would allow it to pick up enough speed to ROG and could land without worrying about cracking the foam.

Or am I just being silly and need to try it out the normal hand launch way?

The additional weight and drag of a landing gear would severely affect flight performance. If you are scared launching the model, use a bungee. Jürgen

i tried a bungee, and it works really great, but transporting it is a b****. Hand launching is not that bad if your'e smart enough to move your hand away from the prop after it leaves your hand. Just launch it, and pull your hand down.

A PVC Peddle launcher is not that Much of a Hassel to transport and isvery Cheap to Make.
www.yourzagi.com Shows a great way to make one. Have fun with your Mirage. Do not make the Mistake of putting Landing gear on this Plane. You will change it from ferarri to a volvo real quick.

Kush

I have about 60 takeoffs and landings with my Mirage 2000-2. Made the gear after my first hand launch resulted in a minor crash and did not want to risk further hand launch or landing damage to nose and belly. I use the stock 400 motor with Gunther push on prop and 8 600 AE cells. Struts are CF rod with music wire axles wrapped with thread. Home made balsa hubs and black epp foam tires were replaced with the LYT wheels because they are just as light and more robust. A tail skid protects prop tips and ensures max thrust during takeoffs which take about 40-50 ft in no wind. The nose gear is stearable using each of the elevon servos to pull on each side of the nose gear tiller bar. A pony tail rubber band in tension allows this system to work without stalling the servos or drawing extra current. On takeoff roll I don't rotate but let the jet fly off by herself and this avoids tail skid strikes. I'm sure that the extra 3/4 oz that I've added and drag is reducing performance. However I'm satisfied with her rate of climb, speed, and aileron rolls. Highly recommend making fixed gear for any Mirage owner that has access to a paved or hard surface runway.

A Mirage with those wheels in the air - not a pretty sight. Jürgen

The Mirage is a very sleek airframe and one of the best things about it is it's appearance in the air. That gear is just too dirty if you can't retract it. Don't be afraid to hand launch that craft. If you have problems holding it you can hollow out some holes in the side of the fuse underneath around the CG to help. I had hundreds of great flights on my first Mirage. Only bad launch I ever had was the first one, where I launched power off like the instructions say. Now it's full power, light toss straight ahead then head for the clouds. Gets there quickly with an 020!!! Here's a pic of my newest in it's easy to see color scheme. It must do 3 rolls / second at full speed.

I don't know who grins more, my pilot or me. It's his second Mirage too.

I know that the gear is skinny and ugly and kind of show off but it works. I even put chrome tape on the wheel hubs to get inflight mirror flashes from the sun! Touch and goes and taxi operations are worth all the work though and hopefully kit designers and manufacturers will include music wire plug in/out landing gear.. I don't recommend fixed gear for the beginner because they double the construction time of the kit and landings with gear may cause more airframe damage than the traditional slide in belly landings. Full stop landings can be ugly if you touch down too fast or too nose high. The resultant bounce (s) mean ugly landings or worse crashes if you attempt low airspeed/nose high go arounds.