Wheel Pants Finished…Finally

I spent today getting all the nut plates installed and riviting the outer brackets to the pant pretty straight forward just time consuming. Just need some finishing glass work and some paint but that will wait till spring when its warmer paint doesn’t dry to fast at 40 deg highs here is a link to the wheel pant photos

Time spent 5 hours

Total Time on wheel pants 24 hours

Wheel Pants…Again

It was cold as all get out today so I decided to put everything back on to work on the wheel pants. Once I got all the brackets on I decided to put the left wheel pant outer bracket installed. Sound easy but I had moved the plane to go flying so I had to redo my centerline on the floor so get out the plumb bob and find center again. Once I had that done I was able to get the pant centered the bracket. Once that was finished I spent the remaining time I had until Eve came back from shopping trimming the pant around the tire.

Time spent 3.5 hours

    

Wheel Pants and Flying

Ah yes CWS weekend thanks to my job every pay day is a day off so that means 3 day weekend. It was foggy outside so no flying right off the bat but it was projected to lift and it cleared up a few hours later so for now back to work on the wheel pants. I was able to get the right wheel pant outer bracket positioned, drilled and cleco’d. The hardest part was keeping it square to the A/C centerline while I was drilling. After that I removed everything and went flying did a three ship tail wheel formation with my buddy John and his Pitts along with his buddy Jud in his C-180 I am supposed to get some photos on monday at work so standby for some photos.  Update:  Photo link img_1944.jpg

Time spent 2 hours

Flying Time 1 hour

Wheel Pants

After work I decided to get to the airport and get to work on the axle stand off which is a 1 inch diameter aluminum rod stock that has 1/8 axle nut cotter pin through it to hold the outer bracket.  I needed to match drill the rod for the cotter pin so I had to pull the wheel off which sucks because I had to pull one half of the caliper off and pull the axle nut which means the dreaded cotter pin.  After a mild struggle I was able to get the wheel off and get the pin match drilled I was already on borrowed time with Eve and dinner  so I hastily picked up and ran home.

Time Spent 2.5 hours

Wheel Pants

Did some more work tonight on the wheel pants. I was able to get the left side aligned to the centerline of the aircraft and the inside brackets drilled and cleco’d to the pant. I also started trimming the gap between the wheel and pant

Time Spent 1.5 hours

Wheel Pants Continued

The weather today was crap again second weekend in a row where I wasn’t able to get two flights out. Oh well I just worked on the wheel pants again. I finally got the left pant to fit correctly it helped to draw a line down the center because the reinforcing strip laid in the center was really far off center and was offering a visual distortion of whether the pant was centered or not. I decided that 2 inches off the ground in the tail matched the wing incidence angle. I lined the pant half up and drilled the 2 half’s for the screws that hold them together cleco’d them and re-installed. I managed to get the right pant lined up on the aircraft center line so I decided to drill the mounting brackets and cleco’d those as well.

Time Spent 4.5 Hours

Flying

I took apart all the hard work on the wheel pants to going flying which is much more important then the wheel pants. I happened to take off just when my buddy John was preflighting his Pitts S-1C. So I loitered for a bit and waited then I hooked up with John for some form flight. After a while of some lead changes John ran off to fly some acro as did I. Logged a 0.8 of flight time today. Now there is 46.3 hours on the new engine

Wheel Pants

I continued the wheel pants for the 3 day in a row. It is effing cold out side and it gets dark so early I can’t get off work even remotely early enough to go flying. I decided it was about time I get the plumb bob and tape measure to square up the pants so there are no unusual pitching or yawing moments. I started by dropping a point directly below the tail post and then one off each landing get attach fitting found the center between the two and laid a line down as the center line. I measured the trailing edge and leading edges to even them up. I then measured for correct angle of incidence of the wheel pants to match the wing angle of incidence marked the bracket locations on the wheel pant so that I can drill for the attach screws.

Time spent 2 hours

Wheel Pants continued

I decided to tackle the left wheel pant tonight. It proved a little faster then the right however I hate guess and cut which will inevitably result in patch work later on. I did a load of surgery to the wheel pant until I was able to get it around the gear leg. It still requires a bit more trimming but it close enough to get an Idea on how the plane will look with the new pants and I will post some more photos tomorrow.

Time Spent 1.5 hours

Wheel Pants

Tonight I revisited the wheel pants again now that the wing and everything else has been taken care of and operational. I was able to get the right wheel bracket spaced and mounted with the correct offset from the brake rotor. I trial fit the wheel pant to see if the bracket will work and it needed some trimming to see for sure. I wasn’t in the right cloths to make a mess that the fibreglass dust makes so I left it for tomorrow.

Time Spent 1.5 hours