Fuselage Construction Photos (2)
Gear Leg Construction:
First, following the instruction, fabricate a wooden stiffener and e-glass it in place. I used some extra Bondo to fair it into the gear leg. For some reason, the gear leg paint is not the normal powder coating, and will easily sand off. Acetone will also attack it.
Second, trim the fairing per the plans, then install the hinge. Make sure the fairing is not twisted when you drill for the hinge. I clamped an angle on the trailing edge, and sighting from the leading edge to make sure there was no twist. The angle should set far enough inside to pull the trailing edges together tightly. It's not clear on the plans how to do this. Note: don't cut the trailing edge of the fairing at all (you can sand it flush later). The template is misleading on this... just mark the line to help line up the hinge.
Follow Van's instructions and level the airplane and slip the fairing on. Use a digital level, nothing else will work properly. Now, ignoring Van's plans, clamp a board or a door to a horizontal board that is clamped to the tail section. Mark three points on the trailing edge of the fairing. Drop plumb lines down from the centerline of the fuselage near the gear and back near the door.
Measure carefully the distance from the center line and height of the three points. Go down to your door/board and measure the same points from the plumb line and floor. String three 'streamlines' from the fairing to the door/board. Tie them off in the middle to form a large loop (hard to see).
If you did everything right, these three lines will be parallel.
Using the three streamlines, align the fairing at the three points to be exactly in the center of the loops of line. It's possible to twist the fairing a bit, even with the hinge installed.
Now, here's the trick.... Pin the fairings to the wooden stiffeners by drilling holes top and bottom through the fairing and stiffener. Insert wire pins (hinge pins?) or long rivets (like I did) to locate everything. Don't use clecos, they'll distort the fairing. Now, with these pins, your fairing can't shift it's position.
Take the fairing off, reinforce the finger at the top where the clamp fits as described in the instructions, and put some dollups of epoxy-flox on the inside of the fairings, top and bottom inboard and outboard, then put back into position with the hinges and special pins inserted. You may wish to oil the pins/rivets so they don' stick to the e-glass layups. You also must wrap the gear leg with plastic wrap or duct tape to prevent the epoxy from sticking to the leg and stiffener.
Let everything harden up, remove the fairing and do the trimming and sanding required, and reinstall the fairings with the pins. When you install your intersection fairings later, everything should be nicely locked into alignment. The pins can then be removed.
Update: I made some 3/32" x 2" pins that would go all the way through the fairings and stiffeners, works better than long rivets.
Fairings, etc. gear fairing trimmed, glued, riveted and laminated to the lower gear leg. A lot of work. Believe it or not, this fairing is paint-ready.
The front main gear fairings needed shims to sit flush with the back parts. Even though I laminated a layer of e-glass, it was not enough, so I epoxied #6 washers in place.
Nose gear fairing with extra layups and after clamping in place. The 'flare' should help hold the clamp in place.
Fuel lines, wiring in forward tunnel. Notice the position of the fuel flow sensor. Everything is nested in sound proofing foam.
This shows the blister for the fuel flow sensor. Also, the tab for the trim knob is removable... simplifies working under the panel.
I had interference between the seat ribs and control arm.
A bit of grinding and everything was better. The QB fuse wasn't cut right in this area.
Here's what I did to fabricate a mount for my O2 system:
The above and below photos show the details of the top bracket. It's attached to existing platenuts that I used to mount my fire extinguisher. The position of the tank allows me access to the regulator and access to the fire extinguisher in flight.
The above picture shows my bottom mounting. There are three screws holding it down-- the two for the flap housing attach points, and one countersunk screw under the bottle that screws into an existing hatch cover. I had to fabricate some finger washers to hold the plate off the floor and allow me material in which I could countersink the third screw.
I could just have easily fabricated mountings that attached to the flap cover using the existing vertical screws-- would probably have been simpler. Nevertheless, this works, and the tank is very secure.
This photo shows how I moved my manual trim control to just below the throttle quadrant. The knob itself is hidden behind the mixture control in the photo. This allows me to easily trim when flying formation and gives me extra legroom, without the trim bracket rubbing against my leg.
245 Hrs. flight time: flat tire. The Left main flat was caused by abrasion on the tube from a sticky label inside the tire. The label material caused some abrasion, but the worst was the adhesive which hardened and cut into the tube. I also check the Right Main tire, and it had the same problem in the same place, but wasn't flat yet.
The photo shows the square abrasion caused by the label. I betcha is was a QC label!