You know how you occasionally slap your forehead and go ?Dohh!!? when looking at your airplane? Well, here?s a report on one of those moments with me and the Valkyrie. One of the last things I did before flying it was to complete the intersection fairings. There was a lot of custom work involved, of course, and when I got them finished to the desired shape, I struggled with attachment hardware. I finally settled on a single screw in the forward end, anchored to the fuselage, and another underneath, inboard of the gear, on the belly. Since these areas of the fuselage were all closed up, I couldn?t install nutplates. Consequently, I went with some nutserts that I had handy. Now while I use nutserts, I really don?t like then ? and I especially don?t like them on thin sheet metal!
Sure enough, somewhere after I?d been flying a couple of years, I was installing or removing the fairing on one side, and spun the nutsert in the belly. Well, once they are spun, you?re pretty much done with that size. I had used #6?s, anticipating having to replace them someday, so I was able to go up to a #8. Of course, this happened on the other side as well. The other day, I was checking under the gear leg close-out plate, which meant removing the fairing, and sure enough ? I spun a nutsert again ? dang! There is no way I wanted to go up to a #10, so I checked with one of our community sheet metal experts, Rick Galati for his advice on a fastener to use in a ?blind? compartment, figuring that he knows pretty much all the tricks after a career in aircraft fabrication, his answer? He didn?t know of a good way to do it either ? so he simply put his lower fastener about two inches ahead of where I had mine ? on the gear leg close-out panel, which is removable!
Next time I have some epoxy mixed up, I?ll fill the old hole and clean up that seam ? and maybe even clean off the belly oil?.
Dohh!! Of course dummy! Why I never saw something so obvious before, I do not know. It took me all of about 30 minutes to mark and drill both sides, remove the panels, install nutplates, and put everything back together ? never having to worry about nutserts again. Except, of course, the ones in the forward corners?.I am going to (continue to) treat those with unbelievable care ? I certainly don?t have an obvious fix for those if they spin?
Paul
Sure enough, somewhere after I?d been flying a couple of years, I was installing or removing the fairing on one side, and spun the nutsert in the belly. Well, once they are spun, you?re pretty much done with that size. I had used #6?s, anticipating having to replace them someday, so I was able to go up to a #8. Of course, this happened on the other side as well. The other day, I was checking under the gear leg close-out plate, which meant removing the fairing, and sure enough ? I spun a nutsert again ? dang! There is no way I wanted to go up to a #10, so I checked with one of our community sheet metal experts, Rick Galati for his advice on a fastener to use in a ?blind? compartment, figuring that he knows pretty much all the tricks after a career in aircraft fabrication, his answer? He didn?t know of a good way to do it either ? so he simply put his lower fastener about two inches ahead of where I had mine ? on the gear leg close-out panel, which is removable!
Next time I have some epoxy mixed up, I?ll fill the old hole and clean up that seam ? and maybe even clean off the belly oil?.
Dohh!! Of course dummy! Why I never saw something so obvious before, I do not know. It took me all of about 30 minutes to mark and drill both sides, remove the panels, install nutplates, and put everything back together ? never having to worry about nutserts again. Except, of course, the ones in the forward corners?.I am going to (continue to) treat those with unbelievable care ? I certainly don?t have an obvious fix for those if they spin?
Paul
