Wheel Fairings (1)

Progress has been made over the summer in my air conditioned basement workshop, I have just not kept up with routine posts.  A series of updates for actions taken over the last few months should be appearing soon.

The next items after working on the wheels, axles and brakes are the initial rough assembly of the wheel pants.

The shell halves of fiberglass need to be fit together.  As has been the case with all fiberglass parts so far, tolerances from one part to another are just approximations.  Much hand sanding and fitting is needed to align the edges properly.

 

 

Once the main shells are close, finding the exact vertical and horizontal alignments of the main sections is needed. The Vans plans describe how to determine this geometry on the parts.

 

 

 

Enlarging the default openings to greater than called for in the plans seems to be required for good operational results.  Friends with RV10s have described wheel pant rubbing, or even fractures in the pant structure as the result of tire expansion contact with the pant on landing.

 

 

The strut fairings have fairly complicated shape due to hanging back and out from the fuselage. Fortunately a template is provided in the plans.

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