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Nose gear leg fairing cracked (again)

maus92

Well Known Member
The O.B. installed a fairing that fit tightly to the gear leg at the junction of the leg and fork - I'll call that the "knuckle" (and actually had an extension that attached to the fork swivel stop.) I had to make a minor modification to the fairing when I performed the SB that required the shortening of the leg and replacement of the fork which essentially removed the fairing extension mentioned above. (Note: the OB had an undocumented (as far as the logs go) nosegear incident a year or two after he built the plane which the title search company discovered in a NTSB report, ahem.)

Anyway, the fairing cracked at the bend. Twice. I generally make fairly smooth landings (which is not to say I haven't bounced the nose gear once or twice,) so I'm not sure why this is happening. The second time it cracked was at the margin of the previous repair, so it could be that the repair to the fairing was not performed adequately, or should not have been attempted (full disclosure: I wanted to avoid having to install a hinge on the new part.) I noticed that the replacement fairing fits loosely over the knuckle. Is the fairing meant to slide easily over the leg? Should it be made to slide to accommodate for the gear leg springing a bit? The way the OB built the fairing makes it a very tight fit: you have to literally snap it on to the gear leg, and it pretty much is anchored in position.
 
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You cant have the fairing tight or fixed at both ends. It should be attached at the base and the rest needs o float to accommodate the significant movement/flexing of the gear leg. Mine is attached at the base with a hose clamp and the rest just floats. I do not have a hinge pin.
 
+ 1 here.

You cant have the fairing tight or fixed at both ends. It should be attached at the base and the rest needs o float to accommodate the significant movement/flexing of the gear leg. Mine is attached at the base with a hose clamp and the rest just floats. I do not have a hinge pin.

Yep we have seen the same thing. I had put a fill of epoxy in the bend at the bottom curve on the gear leg to help hold it in place at the bend. In the first 15-20 hours that spot just above the fill started to crack. The bed radius moves a lot more than you would think. I removed the filler, fixed the crack and just put the hose clamp to hold the tab at the bottom. The top is free floating inside the upper fairing. No sing of a problem now that the gear leg can move freely inside the fairing. Hope this helps. Yours, R.E.A. III # 80888
 
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