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.

Chapter 13 - Nose and nose gear - Part 1

Back on the last day of January I took some time to shape depressions on the exterior sides of the NG-30 plates. I had already cut the high density foam and glassed 4 plies of bid glass on the inner sides.

These NG-30 plates make up the sides of a box that will contain the worm drive retract mechinism and the NG-6 bearing block.



Here you can see the 15 plies of BID fiberglass hardpionts where the worm drive mechenism and the NG-6 bearing will be mounted.


Finally 4 plies bid cover the entire ouside sides of the NG-30 plates. This photo is actually taken after I added one additional ply. The plans called for each of the hard points to be weighted down during cure and the results were not very pleasing to me. I did some repair work that damaged the top layer of glass and so I added one additional layer to the affected areas. I was about ready to completely trash the two NG-30s, however I feel the final result is acceptable.


Today and yesterday I spent some time fabricating some parts. Yesterday was spent cutting bending and welding the NG-64 crank. I am not very practiced at welding, and the equipment I used was far from ideal. However the weld is strong and with a little craftmanship I ended up with a good result.

Also pictured are the two NG-8 disks that I fabricated today. The discs were quite easy to make. I simply used a 2" hole saw fitted into my drill press. Then drilled out the 3/16" holes and counter sunk them. Then treated with alodine. The 1/4" hole saw pilot hole was also drilled out to the final 5/16" size.


Here the NG-8 disks are mounted into the forward portion of the NG-30 plates.



Here is the whole assembly trial fitted. In this photo the mechanism is in the retracted possition. The spring loaded linkage will be attached to the nose gear strut. The 5/16" bolt will secure the bearing attached to the top of the strut.


Here is the mechanism in the grear down possition.


From the pilots view...