Dec 10, 2022     Trimming belly fairings - (1 hour)       Category: Landing Gear

Since I had primed the two belly fairings which will cover the landing gear attach points, I decided to begin trimming the extra off of these pieces. Cut to line (or close) with tin snips and then sanded with drum sander on Milwaukee dremel type tool.

  Jan 01, 2023     Preparing to fit landing gear fairings - (2 hours)       Category: Landing Gear

I had previously trimmed the extra ABS from the landing gear or belly fairings and wanted to assure that they were not left too thin around the outside edges. Since I was waiting on some hardware for avionics mounting, I decided that now was a good time to get these fit up. This will require removing the landing gear so to be able to put the bottom of the boot cowling on. The fairings rest on the bottom of the boot cowling and belly of the plane. I plan to deviate slightly from plans and will be installing nut plates instead of nutserts or rivnuts on the belly. In addition I ended up using six bolts per side instead of 5 to insure a tight fit to the belly. (Post script, wouldn't have been needed, my belly is nice and flat.

  Jan 02, 2023     Nut plates for gear leg fairings - (2 hours)       Category: Landing Gear

A day of many interruptions, preparing for possible ice storm. After getting the bottom boot cowling clecoed on, fit up the fairings with tape, chose where to drill bolt holes, (checking clearance in fuselage as much as possible). Then had to remove boot cowl to mount the nut plates. Running a tap through each nut plate also as they self lock too tightly for my taste.

  Jan 03, 2023     Belly fairings fitting - (2 hours)       Category: Landing Gear

Intent today was to cut the openings in the belly fairings ( RANS term) or gear leg fairings for the gear legs to exit. Ended up temp riveting some of the boot cowl stiffeners and temp fitting the bottom of the boot cowl up to be able to mount the fairings to the belly without the gear legs in place. Roughed out the holes based on the position of the outer gear leg clamp. Then I remounted the gear legs and did some filing of the openings to get a better fit. Almost done, but another day of interruptions (church board meeting) slowed progress.

  Jan 04, 2023     Fairings final tweak - (2 hours)       Category: Landing Gear

Upon inspection, the right side belly or landing gear fairing was canted out in the front. I ended up pulling the fairing, tracing the current holes onto paper and then twisting the paper on the same fairing to "move" the holes slightly. The first, incorrect holes were then filled with JB Quick. Picture shows the amount of tweak that I gave the fairing. Fit is now satisfactory. A lot of hours for what would seem to be a simple job.