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30 Jan 2005: Little Jobs and Funerals

1 & 2) Nose wheel door rigging, There are actually two springs, The screen door pulls the doors shut, and the music wire holds the doors straight and keeps them from shutting accidentally.The wire shown has to much tension, I need to get smaller diameter wire.

I may also replace the screen door spring with a cable. I got to think about this.

Anyway, the pan head bolts that hold the small hinge plates on need to be resized, and also the Screen door spring should go through a hole in the bolt (i.e. the hole that would normally be used for a cotter pin and star nut.)

Bend the music wire to get the doors to line up, and also to spring open and shut correctly..

3 & 4) Two minor concerns about the infinity gear were resolved. JD from Infinity Aerospace has been most helpful. Infinity Aerospace is a class example of how vendors should be.

3) I was concerned about this 7/16 inch pin coming out. It supports the gear Scissors swing arm. i.e. holds the gear swing and over centered position when down and locked. If this pin came out, your screwed. SO, Infinity Aerospace recommends drilling a small hole and putting in a roll pin. Unfortunately, the roll pin is a bear to get out if you ever need to do maintenance. I drilled a clearance hole in the support, and drilled and tapped the 7/16 inch shaft for a 10x32 bolt. I'll put an AN3-2 bolt in here and safety tie it. The pin is NOT coming out accidentally.

4) There was also concern about the pressed in trunion support ever coming loose. I drilled a small hole through the plate and into the trunion support. A roll pin was installed. If it does come loose (very, very remote chance) at least the pin will keep things from falling apart until its caught on a inspection.

>26 Jan 2005: Is Photoshop cool or what

TEST QUESTION, What LongEZ looks cooler, Left or Right

If you selected The LongEZ on the right, then you and I are thinking alike. Hopefully this is what my LongEZ will look like in a couple months.

Ok, I got carried away, but this gives me a rough idea of what things will look like.

Left - Before

Right After

OK, nuf goofin off, back to work!!!!!!

23 Jan 2005: New Bulkheads for Strake

The wheel well / fuel strake was sand blasted and ground to get good adhering qualities. The bulkheads are 4 layers of BID on each side of 1/2 inch foam. A small cutout area on the top skin provides for clearance for landing/taxi lights that are mounted on the gear legs.

The outer bulkhead, and hose mount bulkhead are not shown,  they'll be added after the wheel well is completely sealed

1) Three new bulkheads, siphon tube, and air blow gun tool.

The air blow gun tool is used in a final attempt to clean out the inside of the strake before final closeout. It reaches up inside and blows any remaining debris back toward the opening. There is NO debris up inside the strakes before they are sealed.

2) A bulkhead is added to strengthen the wheel opening in case the strut attempts to extend within the wheel well.

The siphon tube will be laid in just before the wheel well is inserted (upper right of photo). This will allow fuel to flow in/out of the small sealed compartment that will be formed by the wheel well against the center spar. This compartment will also house the Centroid Fuel Probe. Without this tube, fuel that flows over the top of the strut portion of the wheel well and gets into this compartment, would be trapped with no way of getting out, about 1 gallon.

3) Note that the strut bulkhead is being moved inboard 2 inches and is now at an angle to the center spar instead of 90 degrees. The Centroid Fuel Probe will be mounted on this bulkhead and measure the fuel level in the small compartment

Note also the triangular cutout from the inside of the top skin. This adds about 1/4 inch more clearance for landing/taxi lights that are mounted on the landing gear leg.

8 Jan 2005: Aft Trunion Supports installed

1) Drilling Aft Trunion Support using homemade guide.

2) Aft Trunion Support holes came out perfect.

3) Fully mounted hardware, gear extended.

4) Gear retracted.  (I LIKE IT)

5 Jan 2005: Cutouts complete, Final alignment

1 & 2) Wheel in the well

3) Checking scissors for final; alignment before drilling mount holes

2 Jan 2005: Vacations over, Back to work on Monday

1) After an hour of making measurements using a laser level. The hole was drilled, came up exactly where its supposed to be.

2) Cutting away bulkheads to get the initial retract position.

3) Nose gear doors cut, now they need to be mounted.

1 Jan 2005: Happy New Year

1) Glass all cut and ready to start reinforcement lay-ups.

2) Lay-ups completed, now the tricky part.

The idea is to get these lay-ups to stick to the inside, and you only have one chance to get it right. My first attempt wasn't very successful and I had to abort. The lay-ups wouldn't stick and kept falling down.

Here's what works;
   a) Before starting the lay-ups in photo 2, wet the inside of the spar with epoxy. 
   b) Now start doing the lay-ups (photo 2), When complete, wait for the epoxy in the spar to become very tacky, this may take a couple hours, be patient.
   c) As you roll the lay-ups in the spar, soak your glove in epoxy, this keeps your glove from sticking to everything.
   d) Use your hand as a squeegee and work the lay-ups into correct position. 

3) Both sides complete with reinforcements in the spar
4) Take a deep breath and start cutting. Be careful not to get to close to the spar.
5) Nose wheel cutout ready for nose door lay-ups.
6) Nose wheel lay-ups complete. I should have gotten a photo of the 3/8 piece of plywood on both sides. The plywood has nut plates mounted to it to accept the hinges in the next step.

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