Jul 07, 2023     Parts Assembly - (.5 hour)       Category: Landing Gear

Completed the nose gear installation by verifying the (hand) torque on the castellated nuts and securing them with the cotter pins. Also, slightly peeled back the thermal insulation around the top of the firewall and taped it down in preparation for the installation of the the Skybolt fasteners.

  Jul 05, 2023     Parts Assembly - (3.0 hours)       Category: Landing Gear

Big day today, but not without its weird trials and tribulations. Gathering the parts for the nose wheel, link and fork installation proved to be challenging. I found that Van's did not supply the correct part. I needed a MS21045-6 nut, but a -4 was in the parts bag. Fortunately my friend Dean stopped by and he had the correct one. Problem number 1 solved. Problem 2 was more intriguing. The MS21083-N6 axel nut was found, then disappeared. Paul, Ron and I searched for 15 minutes looking for the darn thing. Scoured the work bench, moved the workbench, moved the tool box, we essentially looked on top of and under everything. Then I went to scratch my head for a real itch and when I lifted my arm - there it was - the nut solidly attached to my magnetic watch band on my iWatch. That had to be the weirdest and funniest thing to happen on this build. With that nut found we three nuts went on to complete the installation of the fork on the nose gear leg and the wheel on the fork. Then came the big moment when Ron and Paul lifted the fuselage and I pulled the saw horses out from under the plane and now there it is sitting on all three wheels. Wahoo!!!

  Jul 04, 2023     Parts Assembly - (2.5 hours)       Category: Landing Gear

Continued work on the nose gear. I installed the link assembly including the four elastomers. However, while the attach nuts are properly torqued, I've decided to wait before bending the cotter pins. The link assembly is not secured at the top as I was unable to compress the spring/elastomers enough to get the nut/washer/cap on - yet. Help will be there tomorrow:-) I also prepped (sanded, cleaned and taped the no primer areas) and primed the nose gear fork.

  Jul 03, 2023     Parts Assembly - (1.0 hour)       Category: Landing Gear

After drilling out the powder coated holes I began assembling the nose gear strut. Went together really easy except Van's sent AN4-310 castle nuts when they should have been AN6's. I called to order new ones, but they're closed today, so I'll call them Wednesday. I went around the neighborhood and scrounged up 4 AN6-310's. It's great to live in a community like Spruce Creek. There are at least 50 RV's here (out of 600 total aircraft) and many more under construction. The strut is now on but not yet secured.

  Jun 23, 2023     Parts Fabrication - (1.0 hour)       Category: Landing Gear

Deburred and prepped the 4 wheel fairing brackets then primed them. Also spent time gathering the installation parts while the primer dried.

  Jun 23, 2023     Research - (1.0 hour) Category: Landing Gear

Worked on then discussed brake hose alignment and placement with Steve at Aircraft Speciality. Outstanding support!

  Jun 22, 2023     Right Main Gear - (2.0 hours)       Category: Landing Gear

The right main brake system was installed. I purchased stainless flexible lines to use from the fuselage to the brake assembly. Safety wiring of the brake and securing the hose to the main gear leg remains to be done. It should be noted that for some reason, despite the instructions, there was no need to reverse the bleed valve location. Too bad as I had to re-reverse it as I followed the instructions, oh well.

  Jun 21, 2023     Left Main Gear - (1.0 hour)       Category: Landing Gear

The left main brake system was installed. I purchased a stainless flexible line to use from the fuselage to the brake assembly. Safety wiring of the brake and securing the hose to the main gear leg remains to be done.

  Jun 19, 2023     Parts Assembly - (1.5 hours)       Category: Landing Gear

The main gear axel assemblies were installed on both main gear. The wood blocks were placed on the axels and a string taped in place on both blocks. The toe in angle was determined to be nearly spot on (nearly .25 degrees) which is in spec. The blocks were removed. Then the bushing, main wheel, another bushing and the nut to hold all together were installed. The nut was tightened enough so there is no sideway play and the wheel rotates freely. The cotter pin was placed in the hole, but not yet secured.

  Jun 17, 2023     Parts Assembly - (.5 hour) Category: Landing Gear

Final torqued all the main gear attach fittings bolts. Per Van's, the torque on the NAS bolts was quite a bit more than the same size AN bolts.

  Jun 16, 2023     Parts Assembly - (7.0 hours)       Category: Landing Gear

Big day today! With the awesome help of Paul, Hart and John the fuselage was lifted, a sawhorse placed underneath to hold it high up and the rotating fixture removed. The left and right main gear gear legs were installed and although it looks simple enough, the close tolerances and tight workspaces made everything difficult (but still manageable) to install and properly torque. Some filing of the U-1402 support was necessary on both the left and right sides in order to get the gear legs up and into place. NOTE: Be sure to install and torque the U-1405 gear attach angle first before pushing the NAS1306-22 bolt all the way thru the U-1404 upper gear brace. Don't ask me how I figured this out, it's almost embarrassing! With everything installed it should also be noted, no shims were required.

  Jun 15, 2023     Parts Assembly - (2.5 hours)       Category: Landing Gear

I installed the left and right upper gear braces. Here's how I decided to do it. Since I don't have small hands, I decided to temporarily placed the two AN6-15A bolts the brace to insure its proper alignment. Then I installed 3 AN3-6A bolts starting at the bottom first to allow good access as I moved up the brace. This took a lot of time due to access (because of my stupid fat hands). Hah, my buddy Hart came by and did the same job on the other side in 15 minutes - size matters?. With those installed and torqued, I tapped the AN6-43 bushings 'somewhat' in place. Aligning it took a while, using lights, a mirror and a tapered drift. Not difficult, just time consuming. I then installed the AN6-43 bolts and torqued all the AN6 bolts to 15-16 ft-lbs.

  Jun 15, 2023     Wheel Assembly - (2.5 hours)       Category: Landing Gear

Completed putting the nose and main gear wheel assemblies together. The nose tire is set at 35 psi and the mains are set at 40 psi. All the wheel bolts are torqued to 90 in-lbs.

  Jun 14, 2023     Wheel Assembly - (3.0 hours)       Category: Landing Gear

Began the process of assembling the nose and main gear wheels. It's a straight forward, but somewhat slow process as I wanted to get it right the first time. I also repacked all the wheel bearings with Aeroshell 22 Grease. So far no issues. You might note the nose wheel has a lot of white blotches. Maybe I used too much talcum powder:-)

  Jun 13, 2023     Parts Fabrication - (2.5 hours)       Category: Landing Gear

Today I fabricated the left and right gear attachment angles. Originally, this was a fairly large angle of aluminum which has now been cut in half and then cut to shape to form a left and right piece. Then, along with other gear parts, were prepped and primed with self etching primer and set aside to dry.

  Jun 10, 2023     Parts Inventory - (1.0 hour) Category: Landing Gear

With the canopy fairing near completion and the engine now delivered the next task is to get the fuselage on the landing gear and remove the rotating fixture. It's been a long while since the gear parts have been 'seen' so I began to collect them and get them ready for assembly.

  Feb 04, 2022     Fuselage Parts Fabrication - (2.0 hours)       Category: Landing Gear

Fitted the left and right air vent and duct to the fuselage. I decided to attach the assemblies to the fuselage using screws and nut plates then use straight caulk vice the adhesive sealant called out in the plans. This is so I could easily remove the assembly if a vent needed replacement. As always when veering from the plans something is created that is slightly out of the ordinary. In this case one of the new holes was out of reach of my squeezer that's used to dimple holes. My friend Dave took this as a challenge and modified a large C clamp to hold the dimple set and bingo, he had created a long reach dimpler. Problem solved. Kudo's to Dave for his ingenious design.

  Jan 19, 2022     Lower Gear Braces - (1.5 hours)       Category: Landing Gear

(Sounds simple.) The gear braces were torqued (finally) as per the Torque Table for AN5 and 6 steel bolts. Let me start by stating this was no easy task as getting a torque wrench in the area was quite difficult. Also, I decided to purchase set of 6 point sockets as the 12 point set did not get a satisfactory grip on the bolts or nuts. That made all the difference in the world in being certain the bolts wouldn't become rounded due to the high torque values required. Again, due to very little access, I found a pneumatic socket driver was helpful in getting the bolts initially snugged.