Ch7-9-moldless-Pants
Chapters 7-9
In ch. 9: Anti-tip Mold less Wheel pants, also LG strut fairings and parking brake
The pants are in chapter 9, because you can make them at that point, but I would recommend doing it right after you finished chapter 13 and you will be well versed in shaping the blue foam.
As of 06-10-2010, the pants are done (por fin).
Chapter 7
doubleclick pics for larger images
7-1
The first picture shows foam being stacked for the bottom scoop. In the second picture, you can see the alum. inserts with screws in the predrilled holes. I do not like this idea and I scraped the inserts idea. After I made the LG cover, I drilled holes through the cover lip and into the fuselages opening edge and inserted Tee nuts. So simple.
Some of the antennas are shown. I have removed the retro landing light opening, since this picture and placed the landing lights on the end of the strake LE (see ch. 21).
The bevel down for the CS reinforcement layups is shown. The strapping down helped hold the shape.
7-2
The bottom of the fuselage shows a plans type landing light. I replaced the 55 watt light with five 55 watt landing lights. One in the nose bumper/nose LG guard (ch. 13) and two on each strake outboard LE area (ch. 21) They are all very small in size. The second picture is a comfortable "glass down" position. The third picture is of the transitionarea for the future CS reinforcement layups. The picture of the canopy hinges is obsolete, because I moved the aft one further aft for the TB movable part of the canopy and added a hinge on F-28 (FHC) to lift the plexiglas area forward(see chapter 18). The last picture is the "boat picture". This is the one and only personal picture on the site, and I don't think that my wife, Agnes, is going to want to sit in the pilot's seat in flight. I may make and post a picture with the two of us and the finished plane at MBT.
Chapter 8
The first pictures show another change area. I took out the auto headrest and added adjustable headrest attached to the TB support. This is a Brian DeFord idea, except for the forward aft adjustment part. Since my seat back is adjustable, then the headrest needed to be adjustable. The second picture is of the Tee nuts for the seat belt top attachment.
Chapter 9
9-1
This show the the inner side of the support that the landing brake hinge screws onto. These are Hillman 1/4th by 20 hex caps. I would now just use the size Tee nuts to match the bolts and flox them in and a small 1"X1" piece of BID on each side for security. You will not have access to these after install. The next picture shows a trial fit of the hinge and the hinge support. Next, you see the hinge support board install and glassed. Just be sure to tape the hinge and keep flox away from the hinge. The border area around the door was a mess. I had to do some surgery and then applied some micro and used saran wrap as a separator. In hindsight, this was all avoidable, but you have to remember that this is early on in the process. When I did the final micro fill, it looks great.
9-2
Here is the landing brake in place. The next picture shows a later point in the project, but I not taken a pic with the motor in use. The micro on the side of the fuselage is going to be matched by a fill on the bottom and then comes the sanding part.
9-3
Here are the LG strut with the alignment of the axles being done and the mounting of the Cleveland brakes. Yes, I have heard all about the inadequate Cleveland brakes. I used the 30-164 brake assembly(kit #199-197) for 289,000 ft-lb per wheel (as apposed to the 30-133 plans brake assembly of 192,000). The Matco brakes are 325,000 ft-lb. I made larger rudders with greater deflection to give more braking. I did use the Matco cylinders, reservoir and parking brake.
Anti-tip Wheel Pants
9-4
I have enjoyed making these wheel pants. As of 06-01-2010, I cut out the outboard tire door and the inboard panel today (pic section 9-12). You may ask why in world, I would do this type of wheel pants. If you are installing wheel pants after the plane has flown, then this is not the way for you. The custom pants here are ideal for construction right after the LG strut has been installed or right after you finish chapter 13 and have some experience with shaping blue foam. That is why this work is in this chapter. I did this before the paint work, and it would have been nice to do this before the strakes were installed.
The pants for the wheels are important and they can be a problem. The wheels have a big positive camber in flight and change to negative camber on touchdown and zero camber when on the ground. So, the mounting system must move the wheel pant with the wheel for the camber changes. A bracket off the axle, does great, but this setup adds to the width of the pants on the outboard side. The setup used here changes the camber of the pant with the strut change. I tested the camber change, by making the pants with the weight off the struts and then adding the weight when the plane is flipped back over. This is of course what you have after takeoff and after landing.
NOTE: Once you add the anti-tip extension, then you have to take off the LG when you want to flip the plane back upright.
BEFORE I took off the LG, I glassed the sides and bottom of the pants and I placed and microed the LG/fuselage fairing and make the cut through the fairing (see fairing section below the pants section).
FOR PICTURES ABOVE
Pic #1
The dotted lime outline is the LG strut. I ran out of colors to assign. The "C" on the first two pictures is supposed to show that the nose and tail of the pant are fixed to the combination of "spurs" and wheel well supports. The idea is that once these two supports are positioned, then I can cover it all up with blue foam and carve out the shape of the pant. The wheel well supports are end at the "outer surface", on the outboard side. The dimensions of the front wheel well support is eight inches tall and six inches wide, and starts 2.75 inches below the Axle waterline. The back wheel well support is nine inches tall and six inches wide and starts 3.75 inches below the axle waterline. See pic #5 for the mounting template. On the onboard side, the WW supports are not at the surface, but they will be close to the panel edges. In the 9-11 pic section, you can see more on this. I marked the future cut lines on the foam,with a sharpie, before the glassing. The black dotted lines are outlining the nose and tail ribs. This is similar to the nose of the plane, but only one rib on each end. I later cut off the nose rib and just stacked foam for the nose. Later pictures show the 3/8th inch thick foam piece in the tire door area, where A-A and * are. This piece is taped over with masking tape and the foam is removed after the glassing.
"A-A" shows the piano hinges. There are two and each is 2 inches long.
"*" and "A-A" show the outboard removable section (door). I will glass the outer surface like the nose on the plane and mark the "door" outline before glassing. Then I will use the technique shown for the rudder hinge placement of chapter 20. I will place temporary external piano hinges on the fore and aft sides of the "door", before cutting out the door. I can reestablish the position easily at any point with the external hinges. The final piano hinges are two 2" long sections and are like the drawing. The aft of the door is to be a machine screw/Tee nut combination. See the description on Tee nuts for the heat shield install (below).
Pic #2
This is a side view of the pant. The tire door is from one wheel well support to the other. Air inlets and outlets are on the inner surface of the pants in line with the brake pads. I will post a picture later. The black solid lines are the nose and tail ribs. I just used the tail one.
Pic #3
This is the most important step for this type install. If you use a mold and make the pants and then add metal brackets, then you would use the surface that the plane is sitting on to line up the waterline of the pants (Also an install with the plane on the ground will be at the zero camber position with the strut flexed out).
This pic shows the "first draft" of how to get the axel waterline. In pic #4, there is a jig that I made later on for guiding me with the shaping of the foam and that is far better. You want two bars that are at the same height from the fuselage and parallel to the centerline of the fuselage. How you do this is up to you. I used my level and a tape measure and got this. You can use a simple water level like I used in the strake chapter to help. I started with the fuselage level. After the jig is in place, then it is easy to establish the axle waterline.
The rods shown in the pics are trim pieces used to put in screen for porches. They are super light and you can easily drill holes through them. Tape the rod over the axle center and then use the plans of pics #1 and #2 and position the rear spur. I taped a small piece of blue foam on the rod to bring the spur to the center line of the tire. I used 5 min epoxy to glue a another piece of firm foam between the rear inner edge of the tire and the spur, to help hold the spur. I added a rib along the center line of the wheel well support and glassed it to the spur, so that is why I write "to" the center line. I then used 5 min epoxy to tack the spur to the strut. My spur is a 3/8 inch thick piece of glassed foam, and it is 2.75 inches wide and 16 inches long. I marked the waterline on the outside of the wheel and marked that wheel position on the inboard side of the brake disk to strut, to position the wheel to that exact position.
Pic # 4
This is a latter version and better way to show the ground level. My LE and TE was only off by 1/4th inch on the left pant, but the contour of the top of the nose piece was off and I took them off and I will contour the foam with the guide of the ground level rod. In hindsight, I would start with this jig and place a temporary rod on the centerline of the wheel to place the rear spur.
Pic #5
This a very important template ( it will reference the axle waterline and wheel well alignment). I used it here to line up the wheel well supports. I had to trim the forward spur a little to square up the front of the wheel well. The aft wheel well support has to have a notch cut out on it's lower side (up in this pic) to account for the tilt of the spur. After the inner layup on the spurs, then this template is temporarily taken off and the wheel is removed to place the inner layup on the spurs, and then replaced to for the install of the wheel well supports. I used some small pieces of yellow 1/4 inch thick foam and taped them on the fore and aft of the tire. I measured my tire clearance and added one inch clearance on the front and back and cut a squared up surface on the front and back of a 3/8th piece of blue foam and taped it along the "water line center line". This template gave me a 5/8th inch clearance from the outboard surface of the tire to the inside of the future 2 BID surface. After the wheel well supports are installed, then this template is not used again. I will place a piece of 3/8ths inch blue foam spaced in the same way for the final glassing (see pics below). This foam will have a section (round) covered with masking tape, so that blue foam can be removed there for tire clearance, after the outer surface is glassed. Later, I will cut out the wheel door and place two small piano hinges on the forward side and install a narrow "stop" on the aft side of the door where the Tee nuts will go.
9-5
Pic #1(above)
The spurs are glassed at this point. The inboard sides were done with the wheel on and the temp. piece of foam positioning the spur away from the wheel and to the wheel mid line. The first layup was 8 ply (4 BID and 4 UND) that was just the width of the spurs and was placed in two pieces that overlapped three inches at the strut (the UND made this necessary). The outboard layup was done with the wheel off and was a single piece 2 ply BID that overlapped onto the inboard sides. I floxed the ends of the spurs.
Pic #2
NOTE: This section of work would be easier, if you make up the ground reference setup that is shown later. I found that setup helpful for the carving the foam symmetry and so you might as well use it here. My supports turned out perfect with this technique, but the ground reference bars are easier to go by.
This is the template. The axle waterline is marked on the wheel on the outside and the wheel is set in position by marking tick lines on the inboard side. Then the axle waterline is transferred to the wheel well supports using this template. I had marked the axle waterline on the wheel well supports from the plans and lined that mark up with the template line. Later this axle waterline will be visible on the outboard side after the blue foam is applied and I will use it to set the LE and TE of the pants.
Pic #3
In the third picture of the first set, I spoke of tick lines on the inboard side of the wheel. I used them to position the wheel and then taped the wheel in place to allow the template on the outboard side to be accurate.
Pic #4
This is the front view. In the next set of pictures, I added a rib to the front and rear wheel well supports and so they really have to be "square" to the center line of the tire.
9-6
Pic #1
These are 8-32 Tee nuts. I want to cover the install of these and you can see the beauty of using Tee nuts.
I make a cardboard template of the "heat shield" and then cut it out from the 12" by 12" sheet of .032 thick piece of aluminum that I did not use for the canopy install (FHC instead). I marked the position for the desired six 8-32 machine screws and drilled the holes on the heat shield. I positioned the heat shield and drilled through just the outboard side of the spur (this is the 2 ply side). I placed an 8-32 screw into the hole to hold it and then repeated the process and adding another 8-32 screw. When finished drilling the holes into the spurs. I set the heat shield aside and drilled the holes in the outboard surface of the spurs with a 7/32 inch bit and took 8-32 Tee nuts and using a rubber hammer, I tapped them into position. I did hold my hand behind the spur at first, but I found them to be more than able to take the tapping. After the Tee nuts are tapped down, the prongs still keep the Tee nuts off the surface by about an eighth of an inch. That's good. The flox added around later will set around the prongs to lock them in place. I sealed the opening with orthodontic wax. I wet out some 2 ply BID layups on some plastic, floxed around the Tee nuts and placed the layups over the fore and aft sections of Tee nuts. After cure, I dremeled off the glass covering the opening to the Tee nut and scooped out a little of the wax and tested the holes with 1/2 inch long 8-32 screws. The second pic shows the heat shield in place with the screws and washers. This was very easy and very secure.
Pic #2
I have seen pictures of heat shields that appeared to be of thicker aluminum. This is .032 thick. You might call this a heat sink instead of heat shield. The brakes take a braking force and convert it into heat. The part of the "blast" of heat that radiates toward the strut is absorbed by the sheet of aluminum. The Tee nuts on the spur are slightly raised, so there is a spacing between the heat sink and the strut and spurs to hold the heat away from them. The 1.5 inch by 1 inch naca scoop on the forward inboard side of the wheel pants will direct air over the brakes and heat sink and carry the heat away. The scoop is covered with later pics. The third pic of this section shows the aft cut out of the wheel well support for the outlet (which is 2 inch by 1 inch size- outlet is as large or larger than inlet).
9-7
Here are the cutouts on the wheel well supports for the scoop inlet and outlets. See the strake chapter (21) for the steps on how I made those air inlet scoops. These are just much smaller. The nose piece was taken off after this picture. The third pic is showing some firewall insulation with 210 degree rated metal tape. I wrapped and taped the brake line. This is the plans brake line material. I have seen other hoses, but the space is tight here and I want my inner removable panel to be close to the strut. The air scoop will provide for good cooling of the area.
9-8
Pic # 1: The first pic above is of the alignment jig. The rods are just light and flat metal pieces used to attach screen for porches and are at ground level. I ran a piece of cord over the top of the rear tire and over the top of the front LG tire to check this and these rods are also parallel to the flat portion of the bottom of the fuselage. All of the supports are equidistant from the center line of the plane and square in all directions. This makes left and right symmetry easier.
Pic #2: This is showing the side foam which is 3/8ths inch thick with some 1/4th inch spacers for a total of 5/8ths inch. The height of contour of the soft foam on the top of the pant is established by this shape and then I will round the edges. After glassing the exterior, I will cut out a door for access to the tire (foam is taped there).
Pic 3#: This is showing some cut outs of blue foam. The two smaller end pieces are 6 inch wide and are glued inside the wheel well supports and extend down 2 inches. The piece is the middle is for the top of the wheel pant. The side shown is carved out for the tire and the opposite side is rounded for the exterior. The two 10" by 10" pieces are trimmed for a angled shape and held together with finishing nails. These two pieces span the distance between the wheel well supports on the inboard side and after the midline is marked on the strut, then the nails are removed to carve out the inner side for the strut and brake lines, ect. and the other side is rounded for pant contour. This piece will make the surface for the inboard access door (no hinge, but just screws). This section will flow into the shape of the bonnet. The bonnet will be like the transition at the base of the strut to fuselage area. The two areas have the same type airflow, so this seems to make sense.
Pic #4: (Add some thin cloth over the brakes and drum before foaming). The fourth pic shows the foam pieces from the third pic after internal shaping. O.K., here is what that means. I marked a midway point on the inside of the strut and took one of the 10 inch by 10 inch pieces of foam and marked the pieces fore and aft and left and right. I pressed one of the pieces over the area that it would cover and "jiggled" it to leave a mark and then trimmed in that area. Jiggle-trim, jiggle-trim and the shape quickly takes form to allow for space under the inboard skin for the brake line, and brakes, ect. I kept timming until the pieces contacted the inboard side of the wheel well support. I did this same thing for the top piece of the pants over (upside down here) the tire.
Pic #5: To give spacing over the tire, I drilled 1/4th inch wide holes and place dowel pins cut to 5/8ths inch length. I inserted the dowel pins part way and then pushed the foam parts into position to set the dowel pins at the right position. I marked the inner surfaces of the inboard pieces with a black sharpie and then painted the inner surface of all the pieces with epoxy. Later, I carved the "top" of the pant until I saw one of the ends of the dowel rods to get the 5/8ths inch clearance. This is a very important step.
9-9
The four foam pieces for the front are seven inches long, except for the inboard one, which is one inch shorter. I used the nose rib that I had cut off and added an inch further back to over contour the foam. It would be just as well to have a cardboard template made from the plans dimensions. The TE section starts with one piece that is cut from the plans dimensions, but I ended up with 18 inches on that length. I added a second piece inboard to that, which runs from the TE to the aft of the rear spur. These two middle pieces make the TE center point. I added a 6 inch long outboard piece and an 8.5 inch long inboard piece to the inboard side. There are two small filler pieces top and bottom to add also. I added some 1 inch thick pieces of foam on the bottom inboard side next to tire to close back in the shape. I had covered the brake and drum with a thin rag, before I microed those pieces in place.
Next, stack the foam pieces together and place finishing nails to hold during cure and check the TE and LE against the ground reference bar for alignment (AOA) and symmetry from left to right. Then mix up thick micro and first bond the pieces to each other and reinsert the finishing nails and then bond to the wheel well supports and for the rear, bond to the rib. I started shaping the foam this morning (05-04-2010) and the ugly duckling look is quickly going away. I shaped up the left pant and carved out the inlet side of the scoop. See previous pics for the position of the cutout on the wheel well support.
Pic #1: Foam stacked and bonded-inboard view.
Pic #2: Same-outboard
Pic #3: Aft look at stacked and bonded foam. You can see that it takes some odd shapes on a couple of the pieces.
Pic #4: The shaped pant-outboard view. The tape is used for two reasons. I bridged over gaps in the foam for the glassing. I will still use micro. The round shape of tape is where the foam below will be completely removed to give the 5/8 inch clearance to the side of the tire. I need some foam on the perimeter to make the tire door have strength. The soft blue and yellow foam has had a coat of epoxy applied to it before the taping was done. The same technique was used for the LE of the strakes (ch. 21) and to make the fuselage and cowling lips (ch. 23). If you don't do this then the micro causes unevenness (dips) that you "chase" with more micro and pressing the outside of the glass to smooth out the micro is a tricky thing. Hey, you're probably already doing this. I did not need to apply epoxy on the tire door (before glassing), because it is stiff foam. Note the LE-TE line marked on the outer foam. This is parallel to the ground reference bar, which are removed now. The outline of the tire door is marked for cutout after glassing.
Pic #5: Inboard view.The removable panel outline is marked. Later, when I did the cut, I left 1.5 inches on the lower side to run from the forward to aft sections. (see 9-12).
I don't show the foam that was placed on the bottom inboard side of the tire, but you add it there and curve the edge towards the tire (also see 9-12).
For the strut, I used 3M masking tape for peel ply. It works great. Don't use any blue tape for this purpose. The tape on the strut is over a 2 ply BID layup that covered some micro, which fixed the "dip" near the TE. This should keep me from leaving micro chunks on the runway. The dip was small.
05-08-10
I did the "A bridge too far" thing this morning. I started glassing the bottom side (reversed orientation) and inboard and outboard sides plus make the inboard and outboard sides of the bonnets for both wheel pants at one time. The shop was at 68 degrees, so I figured to get a little more working time. What I did not figure was the working over the strakes factor. I ended up using the hair dryer and trudged on to a good finish, but it was 4.5 hours of "sprinting". It was too much like work. I should have wet out the glass for one side at a time. I could have done both sides in thirty minutes less time or at least have a more leisurely schedule.
9-10
Pic #1: This dark picture is the TE "fin" for the bonnet. I used some scraps of 3 ply BID for this and the same way for the TE of the fairings for the strut/fuselage junction. My bonnet is more narrow. It seems to make sense to match the shape of the strut/fuselage fairing, since the airflow pattern is similar.
Pic #2: This is the rough shape after glassing all the sides except the top of the middle and nose sections. I have to trim out for the scoops and glass their interior surfaces. I used a dremel disk and opened up the TE and placed a flox tip.
Pic #3: The front profile looks funny with the positive camber. When the weight of the plane is applied to the strut, then the outboard side will be parallel to the sides of the fuselage. Whatever the shape of the strut, the pant will hold position relative to the tire, and that's what counts the most to me. There is no bulge on the outboard side, like most of the Cozy wheel pants, because there is no mounting bracket there. The bottom of the fuselage is flat also, and decreased drag is what this is all about.The same applies to the inboard side. I covered all the vitals and cut the profile down to the minimum. This makes a different looking profile, but the air should flow well on this shape.
Pic #4: This is the anti-tip pic. The strut is suspended by ropes and just sitting on the buckets. This shows the pitch of 14 degrees before the rear of the pant contacts the ground. My plans showed 13.5 degrees, so this looks good. The bottom of the pant has the aft "rib" just under the skin and the rib is bonded to the aft "spur", which is bonded to the strut. After I mount my redrive and prop then I will recheck this and adjust the pant as needed. Since I have foam underneath the glass, a little surgery is no big deal. The top has been glassed after this pic and I glassed the scoop intake and outflow. I microed the exterior and sanded it down.
"Tire door" and HINGES, the "think outside of the box" way
9-11
Pic#1-4: At pic #4, I had marked the mid line of the tire enclosure on the bottom of the outboard foam. I measured forward and aft 8 inches and marked a perpendicular line with a pencil. I drilled a very small test hole and looked from below to see if the line was at the wheel well support point. It turned out that the inside to inside demensions is 15.5 inches. I had to move the top of the line a little and then I marked with a sharpie for the vertical cuts. The top cut line must allow for the height of contour of the tire for removal. This pic shows the temporary external hinge on the forward side. I placed another temp. hinge on the aft side BEFORE cuting out the door. Both hinges are marked (up side, fwd and aft).
Pic #1: This shows the tire door right after cutting the door out.
Pic #2: This shows the interior trimmed out for glassing. I placed some strips of 2 ply UND around the edges on the inboard side lip. The gaps at the bottom of the wheel well supports were spanned with masking tape and I placed a 5 inch by 5 inch glass piece there (allowing for a glass to glass bond around the masking tape). See pic #7.
Pic #4-6: Here are the details for the hinge installation with Tee nuts.
1. Put the aft temp. hinge on.
2. Trim the forward surface of the door for the inset of the hinge.
3. Mark the holes from the aft side of the temp. external hinges onto the aft of the perm. hinges and drill out for the temp. screws. Install the aft side of the hinge on the interior of the door, and drill out holes per size for the Tee nuts (10-32 or 8-32) on the inner side of the hinge.
4. Close the door flush and through the inner access door, reach in and mark the holes through the inner side of the hinge (pic #6 shows that view)
5.Hinge open the tire door and drill larger sized holes than the Tee nuts need, to allow for a perfect final position. I twisted the Tee nut prongs flat and placed ortho wax on the inner opening. (see pic #5).
6. Place masking tape on the surface of the inner side of the hinge, butter in flox into the Tee nut holes, insert the Tee nuts and install the matching screws through the hinge as in pic #6. Screw the bolts in half way to allow you to press down on the Tee nut and assure that it is still fully seated in the hole. Let cure.
7. Remove the hinge and place ortho wax into the openings of the Tee nuts and place a 2 ply BID layup over the Tee nuts to secure them to the wheel well.
Pic #7: The aft door stop is covered here. I cut off some 5/8ths inch scrap of glassed foam (3/8ths inch thick). Next I closed the tire door and taped the exterior so that it would remain flush and reached in from the inboard side and put the strip piece in place and marked the position with a sharpie. I drilled three holes forward-aft direction and placed three sheetrock screws to hold the position of the door stop, (rechecked the position to the interior of the tire door) and then floxed it in position from the inner side. I did not flox where Tee nuts were going to be placed. Drill through the holes in the tire door to match the screw size. I used a 6-32 by 1.5 inch machine screw. The 6-32 Tee nut is small enough in diameter to fit there. I noticed that all of the Tee nuts are available in two base sizes. Some places need the smaller diameter.After drilling the holes through the door stop, I opened the door and redrilled the holes to 7-32 size holes. The Tee nuts are placed with the flat size facing away from the tire door. Insert the screws through the door to hold the Tee nuts in place and place a small dab of flox to hold the Tee nut. Don't get the flox on the machine bolt. I placed some ortho wax to help. This gave me a secure stop for the tire door.
9-12
Pic#1: This is the outline of the cut. I referred to the pics of the position of the brake line and other hardware.
1. work on the brake line 2. bleed the brake line 3. disassemble the brake (which allows for tire removal). That is what determines the outline shape. Matco brake folks will need a different outline.
Pic#2: I cut out the inboard panel and left a "bridging" section on the bottom. This is right after the cut. I used a dremel disk, and cut just through the glass. Then, I lightly used my hack saw blade to go through the soft blue foam. The brake line is about 1/2 to 3/4ths inch below the surface. The tan foam is some "great stuff" that I used to tack the foam to the spurs and strut. Of course Great stuff won't stick to blue foam unless you coated the internal side of the foam with epoxy.
Pic#3: The inboard panel needs 8-11 attach points. I used 11. I drilled 7-32 size holes and placed the 6-32 Tee nuts and placed a dab of flox to prevent rotation.
PANEL ATTACH POINTS:
At pic #5 you can see three of these "Tee plugs" (Tee nuts/fiberglass square). I took three of the Tee plugs and using a one inch 6-32 screw, I secured them to the inside of the panel (after applying masking tape) and added some ortho wax to protect the screw from flox and placed some dry ficro (flox thickened with micro) on them. Since these three Tee nuts are the ones over the spurs supports, I could tape a little foam below the attach points to the spur to prevent dripping and taped the panel in place and let cure. The three attach points held the panel stable for the next step.
I taped the inside of the panel and marked circles where the ficro reinforcement was in the panel and then I secured the panel into place with the three screws. Then from the outboard side I placed 2 inch by 2 inch pieces of 5 ply UND with the plastic still on the outer side to allow masking tape to be used to help hold them. I also buttered each piece with some medium consistency flox to help hold it in place until the tape could be applied.
After cure, I drilled the 6-32 holes through the previous holes in the panel and through the panel pads.
Next the panel had to be "teased off". The flox sticks to the masking tape, but the masking tape will peel off the panel. I peeled off the masking tape from the panel where it was not covered under the pads and then used a hack saw blade to unstick the tape from the panel and then the panel came off. Be patient and it will come off.
You want a very good adaptation of the pads to the interior of the panel.
Next, I used one inch 6-32 screws to position the Tee plugs on the inboard side of the panel pads and placed a small bit of flox (AFTER REMOVING THE PLASTIC) on the Tee plug to panel pad junction.
I trimmed up the pads and tested the access for placing and removing the brake and tire.
9-14
9F-1
Thanks to Wayne Hicks for his strut/fuselage fairing information.
This is chapter 25 work, but I included it here and I will refer to this section in chapter 25. The time is right for this work. After, the pants are shaped and partially glassed, then I will need to take the strut off to finish the work on the pants, so the LG-fuselage fairings are done before the LG strut is removed.
Pic #1: This is the LE and TE line marked by placing a level on the LE and drawing forward, and then the same for the TE. I call this the center line of the fairing.
Pic #2: This is the first block.
Pic #3: These are easy to cut and make. I marked the shape off the outboard edge of the LG cover on a 14 inch by four inch piece of 2" thick soft foam. The cutout needs to have a little taper. I just used a handled hack saw and guessed. Then I jiggled the piece on the strut. The left top piece is angled just like the right bottom piece and it reverses for the right. So if you angle the cut wrong, then you can still use it somewhere. "Just go for it". Cut four pieces. I put the bottom piece in position and overlapped the top piece over that and cut through the two pieces at once,just like like cutting carpet or two pieces of overlapped fabric. Make the cut on the TE off center of the center-line, to allow the bonding of the piece to the fuselage.
Pic #4: The future cut lines are marked on the shaped foam. A small amount of micro is holding them in place for the shaping. The lines are covered over by the micro and have to be redrawn, but it helps to plan the cuts. The front to back lower cuts must be beveled to prevent "undercuts". The material below the glass is soft, and I want to do some
internal glassing later of the exposed foam.
Pic #5: The rough glassed shape. I used a dremel disk on the aft ridge and placed a flox edge. I placed some masking tape below the ridge, added the flox and then sandwiched the flox with another piece of masking tape and got a straight edge. You may want to add additional masking tape to hold the shape.
9F-2
Pic #1: This shows the after micro look. Previously, I placed some micro on the strut have good shape (for AOA) and covered that with a 2 ply BID layup. For this micro work, I wanted it to be thin to prevent cracking, so I used a brush with epoxy to smooth it out. I have not done that with any other of the finish work, but the strut is a special situation. I used a little softer micro mix with a ratio of 5:7 (squirts:micro scoops), for the "upper surface", and 5squirts:8 for the lower surface. Later, I sanded and shaped to final shape but not smoothness. I do not want to re-cut the fairings after another micro layer and you can't micro them separately and get a smooth transition.
Pic# 2 : I remarked the cut lines and used the dremel on the straight parts and used a handled hack saw blade (one sided hold) for the curved LE area. Here are some suggestions. Mark the foam before glassing to get a "feel" for where the thickness of foam allows for a good cut. At the corners, extend the fairing cut line beyond the edge of the LG cover. Later, I ficroed the internal surfaces. I used some small pieces of glass on some of the areas (where there was room). Now, that the fairing is done, it's back to wheel pants.
Parking Brake
The pictures above show the installation of the Mapco parking brake. The pad shown has two Tee nuts with the prongs bent flat for the bolts to hold the brake against the side of the fuselage. I floxed the pad to the side of the fuselage, slightly forward of the IP on the pilot's side. This is ideal for bringing the brake lines directly up to the parking brake and then continue on forward to the brake cylinders. If you made the plans pitch control, then this works like that for the IP cover. When you put a bolt in the control lever and move the handle you get the arc pathway. I screwed the p. brake onto my workbench and held a plastic covered square of plywood next to it. I inserted a drill bit through the handle and then scratched the arc onto the plastic and marked the center of rotation on the same template. I transferred this to a piece of aluminum sheeting (1/8 inch thick) and drilled the rotation point and using the drill press, drilled holes in the arc and made a little detour around a "tooth" at the top for a stop. The top position is the locked position. I cut off the rotation part of the cover after the two Tee nuts secured it to the IP. The blurry picture shows a drill bit extending through the IP to confirm the rotation point, BEFORE I cut the arc in the IP and mounted the cover. The smoothness of action of the cover is all dependent on duplicating your template onto it. The bolt from the P.brake to other side of the IP will be 1.5 to 2.0 inches. I will make a handle to match the rest of the IP, and anodize the piece of aluminum.