Feb 28, 2021     Drilling main wheel axles for castle nuts - (3 hours)       Category: Main Gear

After jacking the Sportsman using a recently purchased old Porche aluminum scissors jack, Stratford removed each wheel so it could drill holes through the hollow axle for the cotter to lock the large castle nut holding the wheel bearings and wheel in place. He taped the axle nut which has a "bow" welded on it for gear fairing support, so it would not turn while he was drilling. Using new cobalt 1/8" drill bits, he drilled downward for the top of the axle, and upward for the bottom. This was NOT easy. One of the drills pretty much died, but the second has some life left after drilling four holes.

Stratford deserves special credit for finding and modifying the Porche aluminum scissors jack. it was covered with grease and grime. So he soaked in solvent, cleaned it thoroughly, sprayed the whole jack with CorrosionX, and finally lubed the pivot points and screw threads. He drilled a hole in the center of the jack locator and inserted a bolt extending vertically so it would fit into the jack tab we had installed next to each brake assembly. That bolt fits into a hole in the jack tab to make a secure attachment during jacking.

  May 14, 2008     Main gear fairings foam and cloth buildup multi-step process - (40 hours)       Category: Main Gear

Creating a properly aligned with the airstream pair of main landing gear leg fairings was a massive job. Zach Chase was the master teacher. He had tips for this construction that were truly amazing. Among others, he used a laser to project a red line on the back of each gear leg and then subsequently used the red laser line to align the foam and glass fairing. Amazing. The Glasair Sportsman builder's manual shows how to build a sheet aluminum fairing, but this one is far superior.

  May 04, 2008     Main landing gear fairing construction of BID and vinyl ester - (10 hours)       Category: Main Gear

On the tapered, hollow, spring steel landing gear legs we used BID, vinyl ester to provide a base to later attach tapered foam blocks to build a streamlined fairing cut and sanded to a low drag aerodynamic shape. The process was quite an extensive job of many steps.

  Aug 05, 2006     Gear legs, prepare, insert, align and drill - (10 hours)       Category: Main Gear

We inserted the tubular, spring steel landing gear legs through a pair of holes we cut with a hole saw in the fuselage. We used the aftmost pair of sockets that are in the CrMo tubular cage frame since we were building the tricycle gear version of a Sportsman. We clamped the gear legs to a long piece of aluminum placed on the floor crosswise to the fuselage. Then we used special cobalt bits with plenty of Boelube and a 1/2" chuck SnapOn air drill which turned rather slowly to drill holes through each the gear leg socket and gear leg. A tight-fitting bolt inserted into the hole locked the leg in place.