Another quick update on the Landing Gear fitment… all done! No really.. Sam, Nico, and I were able to carve out 8 hours over a couple days and wrapped up drilling and disassembly of the main gear. There weren’t many challenges although I did manage to put the inboard wear plate on backwards on the left gear. Thankfully, it felt wrong enough (holes weren’t quite lining up), that Sam and I disassembled that side and fit it properly.
Once we had fully drilled all holes, it was time to install the bottom skins and trim for fit. Since these gear are after market, the brackets are a bit taller requiring more trimming of the bottom skin. It was fairly easy with a Dremel cutting wheel.
The plans encourage you to disassemble the gear after all fitment is complete to allow easier movement and access of the fuselage. There is still quite a bit to do, and the gear would get in the way. I was able to get things disassembled with the help of Nico (since nuts are inside the fuselage, it is definitely a two person job.
The last thing I did was to reinstall the fwd bottom skins. This was extremely difficult… especially the F-850-1 skin. These skins have to be slid between two other skins (or the longerons) and in many places it is very tight. I eventually got most everything lined up, although there were a few places I needed to drill out the holes a bit. I’m comfortable with this since these skins are sitting between two other pieces and the skins fit nice and taught when fully cleco’d. I also removed a couple rivets that I installed a bit too early and were causing the installation to be excessively complicated. (Plans called for delay of those, but I ended up putting them in).
I’m off for a week to watch the boys complete in the volleyball National Championships so not much action until I’m back. Then it’ll be time to focus on the fwd bottom skins to get them riveted on. Until then… Happy Building!!
3 comments
Woww. Another big step. Congratulations on the progress. Great team work
How thick is the solid steel landing gear ? Weight ?
quite thick! But weight is not bad. Needs to be strong enough for those bad landings!