Chapter 13 - Nose and nose gear - Part 8

After I assembled the nose gear box, strut and wheel assembly, I test fitted the whole mess to the fuselage and discovered that the nose gear strut was too long. Of course it was, the strut is made long and I was supposed to trim it to the proper length. So I had to remove the castering nose wheel assembly from the strut. That was not super easy because it was bonded in place with flox. However a little careful coaxing and I managed to get it all apart.

Yesterday I finally got around to trimming the strut down and re-attaching the castering wheel assembly. Today I fitted the assembly to the fuselage and installed 2 ply bid glass to attach the assembly to the F-22 bulkhead, however only on the right side. After that layup cures I will move the long bar clamp to the other side and lay up 2 ply on the other side. Then I will extend the gear and lay up bid tape inside the assembly as well.

After that comes some decision making. Do I want an extended nose? Do I use the stock plan nose (which I think is kind of ugly). If I decide to have a longer nose, how long? hmm.....

Chapter 13 - Nose and nose gear - Part 7

Today I assembled the whole nose gear mess. Everthing went together pretty easily.

One little snag though. The strut should be straight down the middle between the NG-30s. After bolting it all together it was sitting a little to one side. The strut is bolted to the NG-6A pivot and is a loose fit. Flox is used to bond the strut and there is a little play before the flox cures so I have clamped the strut to one side to pull it over while the flox cures to try and ensure it is right down the middle. We will see tomorrow if all is well.

Chapter 13 - Nose and nose gear - Part 6

Saturday I walked outside to go and get some coffee and was suprised to find a FedEx box with the Featherlite parts I have been waiting for.

Here are the parts from left to right: nose gear strut, strut cover and nose wheel cover.

The plans call for the nose wheel hole in the fuselage bottom to be cut prior to floor installation. However I did not have my hands on the nose wheel cover until now. I sort of guessed at the shape when I countoured the floor. Supprisingly the cover fit quite well.

Here is the hole rought cut. In the meantime the cover have been floxed in place. Later I will clean up the hole to ensure a nice clean transition from the bottom to the cover.

The plans call for two plies of BID to be layed up over the strut to prevent splitting. Pictured is the first of the two. After cure, the strut is flipped over and another ply is layed up over the back and sides. Two screws screwed into the bench and a couple of bondo blobs keep the strut off the bench while the epoxy cures.

Chapter 13 - Nose and nose gear - Part 5

Today the UPS man was nice to me. Not quite nice enough though. I recived my new NG6A pivot assembly and the NG401A castering nose wheel assembly. Still this only does me so much good at this time because I am still awaiting the arrival of the nose gear strut an other glass parts from Featherlite before I can make much progress with this chapter of the build.

Chapter 13 - Nose and nose gear - Part 4

While I am awaiting the arrival of some new nose gear parts (strut, nose gear casting, etc) I took some time today to mount a new tire on the nose wheel.

After all, I bought the wrong tires for the main wheels, so now it's the nose wheels turn. The origional STA tire I bought from Aircraft Spruce did not quite do the wheel justice and just did not seem approprate, so I searched around (something I should have done before) and found a nicer looking tire from Dresser Tire.

I seem to recall reading that the zig zag pattern in the other tire (really a tail wheel tire) may be more likely to throw debris up and at the prop. Perhaps this is true, perhaps it's bunk, nevertheless the new tire does at least look nicer.

Chapter 13 - Nose and nose gear - Part 3

Last week I spent quite too much time fabricating the NG3 and NG4 brackets. These brackets attach the NG9 pushrod (in this case the spring loaded linkage) to the fiberglass nose gear strut.

These were cut from a sheet of .062 4130N steel. I used a crappy cheap Harbour Frieght bending brake to bend the steel which was probably just too thick for the break to handle. Nevertheless it all worked.

The holes in the larger NG3 bracket are small pilot holes. The smaller NG4 bracket will be drilled out after bonding to the fiberglass strut to ensure perfect allignment.

Chapter 13 - Nose and nose gear - Part 2

This post is mainly for eye candy. I recently recieved my new 4" nose wheel from the Cozy Girrrls. My past part orders from the Girrrls arrived so quickly they were akin to the Coyote reciving his Acme stuff seconds after posting his mail in order. However this time the USPS took a little extra time. That coupled with the disappearance of the check I mailed them led me to become a little concerned about mail delivery in my neiborhood. Of course the same day I file a complaint at the post office, the wheel arrived leaving me feeling somewhat embarrased... Enough with all that. The wheel is beutifull....

I Also I took the time to mount smaller shin tires on the main wheels. It turns out that the 5.00x5 tires I had were not the recomended tires and would have required extra large draggy wheel pants.