Monday, June 22, 2009

A Good Day at the Airplane Factory








Mounted the nosegear this morning. Used a fish scale to set the tension of the swivel. Worked well and the new nosegear assembly received from Van's fit very well. The plane is now on all three wheels. Neat!!

Then worked a bit on the fit between the lower cowl and the upper cowl. Put them together, drilled, then cleco'd the inboard hole per the plans. Then cutout the nosegear slot, the gascolator hole and the exhaust oval. (At least that is what I think the additional holes in the lower cowl will be used for.) Used a small sanding drum in the die grinder, after cutting the rough shape using the reinforced cutoff disks in the Dremel, it worked well. Hand sanded to the line. Lots of dust!

Then marked the canopy fiberglass for the final cut. Found the pivot bolt hole was NOT exactly in the position per the template. The center of the pivot bolt was OK vertically but was 3/32" aft of the position as the template suggested. MARK the position of the center of the pivot bolt before you start glassing so you know where it is.

Cleaned the shop and put away a bunch of tools.

Time Today - 7 hours