Capter 24 - Covers Consoles and Fairings - Part 1

Time for a diversion....

I was just gearing up to shape the nose when it was suggested to me that I shape the canopy, canard cover and nose all at the same time. This sounded like a good idea and after looking at photos of the advisers aircraft I have decided to go ahead and order a canopy from Todd's Canopies.

In the meantime, while I wait for the canopy to arrive I decided to work a little on the pilots left side console.

Here is the two peices of .35" divinicell foam covered with 1 ply bid...

And here are the they are after trimming and assembled with a flox radius and 2" bid tape...

And finally 2 ply's bid fiberglass over the outside...

This was trimmed and here is the panel test fit into the cockpit. I will do no further work on this untill I have the throttle quadrant and eleveator trim mechinisms installed.

Chapter 13 - Nose and nose gear - Part 9

Nose gear installation complete. Not much to say here, but I thought I would post a few photos to document the completion of this step. Since the last post I have finished taping the nose gear assembly to the forward bulkhead and I installed the crank and crank ratchet.

I am not sure if I like the ratchet mechanism that I am using, but it seems to work fine. I will leave it and keep an open mind in case a better option is available.

Pictured here is the crank and the ratchet mechanism. The ratchet is used to prevent the crank from rotating and letting the retract mechanism move out of position. If the retract is not fully down and locked the gear teeth will break when the nose wheel contacts the ground. In the photo the crank is positioned up, however I made sure that the crank is in a downward position when the gear is either fully retracted or extended so that there is that little extra available panel space just above the crank. Also visible is an aluminium wedge used to ensure the ratchet is angled both down and to the right ensuring proper alignment. The two machine screws are cheap hardware screws and will be replaced with AN hardware eventually.

Nose gear retracted.

Nose gear extended.

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.