Fairing questions, gear leg & intersection

Hi guys,

Pushin' through the fiberglass work, because it's my least favorite and I want to get it out of the way. Questions:

1) On the gear leg fairings, do you get decent results simply riveting the hinges to the fiberglass, or are a lot of you bonding the hinges on with ProSeal or whatever in addition to the rivets?

2) Wheel pants and gear leg fairings are aligned with the airflow, per instructions, but intersection fairings are not yet fitted. Someone suggested mounting JUST the intersection fairings with the plane's full weight on the gear for a better fit. Anybody wanna, ahem, weigh in on this?

Re; Intersection fairings

I used the hinges and rivets to join the fairing at the trailing edge. You put the hinge in far enough so the two edges trailing edges meet. That was about three years ago. A friend who just finished his was told by Vans to put velcro on the inside to keep the two trailing edges together. They looked fine and he has had no trouble with that approach. Personally I like the hinges.

As for the intersection fairings. I think you need to mount them with the gear off the ground. If you torque the fairing with weight on wheels you could alter the way the gear leg fairing flows in the airstream, and they will act like rudders. Take your time as this is an important part of how the plane flies. YMMV. And my opinion only

It wouldn't hurt to lay down some West Systems G/Flex epoxy under the hinges on the gear legs.



I would also position the intersection fairings with the weight off the gear legs. There is plenty of flex with the fairings, so line them up, match drill some holes around them to the wheel pants, and do the cutting/splitting and bonding off the gear.

The upper fairings can wait until you get the wings on.

bruceh said:

It wouldn't hurt to lay down some West Systems G/Flex epoxy under the hinges on the gear legs.

I would also position the intersection fairings with the weight off the gear legs. There is plenty of flex with the fairings, so line them up, match drill some holes around them to the wheel pants, and do the cutting/splitting and bonding off the gear.

The upper fairings can wait until you get the wings on.

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I carbon copied Bruce's everything is still there after fifteen hundred hours

Great advice, guys...thanks as always! I need to order another big can of epoxy anyway, so I'll throw some G/Flex on the ticket too.

Did you use the cage countersink for the fiberglass? Does fiberglass really dull these bits in a hurry? I'll definitely glue & cleco the hinge, and then countersink.

rightrudder said:

Did you use the cage countersink for the fiberglass? Does fiberglass really dull these bits in a hurry?

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Quick answer, yes and yes.

My #40 sized countersink cutter had no problem with the fiberglass, but it did take a toll on the sharpness. Recently I have tried to use the same bit to countersink some nutplate leg holes and it just can't cut through the steel anymore. I had to use my deburring tool to get the countersinks completed.

Thanks, Bruce. It looks like either way I'll have to buy a bit, so I'll use the existing one now and buy a fresh one for the rest of the build.

Attaching gear leg fuselage fairing

Hey, please could you help with a couple questions about attaching the gear-leg to body fairing?

How do you attach the fuselage to gear fairing to the bottom of the fuselage? Seems like the gear weld mount is in the way?

thanks