Jul 30, 2021     Pants - (100 hours)       Category: C09 Lnd Gear

When I purchased the project it came a set of carbon fiber shells, appropriately sized for the plans Cozy. John Shade had used the traveling mold to cast a pair of shells, which were split between a front and back half - that work is described in this section..

But those shells don't fit around the heavy duty Matco 3-puck brake system, and don't fit the Desser "Monster Retread" tires I have used successfully on other airplanes. Les Laidlaw defined a work around and I followed it. The front and back shells were carefully fitted and secured, then split lengthwise. The inboard and outboard halves were secured to a blue foam block 2" thick, then the foam was shaped to fit the outer profile. The exterior join was set with 2 layers of BID, after which the foam was removed from the interior of the shell. The smoothed interior was then joined with 2 layers of BID. The shells now have the proper width. The exterior was smoothed with micro and then 3x of epoxy wipe. To hold the shells together I used 10-32 nutplates, mounted on G10 and then secured to the inner face of the shell with flox and BID.

The wheel and gear leg openings were cut away during a tedious and iterative process of fitting and trimming. The Cozy was pitched to a 2 degree up, cruise flight attitude, measured with digital levels. The wheel pant supports were fabricated and attached to the axles, then the wheel pants were set in a horizontal plane using a custom jig that was hot glued to the floor. The supports were clamped to the inside of the shell, then drilled from the outside to mark the support. Everything was disassembled, and rivnuts were set into the axle-mounted supports. Clearances around the wheel and gear leg were confirmed, and the wheelpant was reassembled.