Insulating floor under pilot

GOOD MORNING TO ALL,
I HAVE A QUICK BUILD 10 FUSELAGE AND I'M LOOKING TO INSULATE THE FLOOR UNDER PILOT AND COPILOTS FEET. DO I REALLY NEED TO REMOVE THE LANDING GEAR MOUNTS TO GET THE FLOOR PANELS UP TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN? ARE THERE OTHER OPTIONS? THANKS FOR YOUR INPUT....

Short answer is yes, you need to remove the gear mounts to remove the front floors... There is a part of the mount that comes forward diagonally that is bolted through the floor panel and into some structure below it. Take a look at page 29-21 in the plans and in the lower right part of Figure 2 you'll see those 2 AN3-5A bolts.

Bob

Actuall the short answer is no. I insulated the floor of my -10 by drilling out the temporary pop rivets and pulling up the aft edge of the floor panels with a cotter pin tool. This gave me enough access to slip pieces of insulation under the floor panels. You can use the rivet lines on the outside to get the dimensions for each piece of insulation.

Jim Berry
RV-10

I removed the panels, but did not remove the gear mounts. I very carefully used a dremel with a cutoff wheel to cut out around the forward gear leg mount which is preventing removal. I then created a doubler and access panel that ends up getting permanently riveted back to the floor ribs. this allowed me to put some Fiberfrax and additional sound insulation on top of it under the forward floors. I admit it was a pain, but it was easier than removing the gear mounts.

I would go with either Jim or Bill's method. Removing the gear mount is a miserable project, I can report. I know there are folks who zipped them right out with no hassle, but that is not the norm.

I second David's post

Craig, I took the formal path of removing the gear mounts and floors and then I placed the insulation. This allowed me to inspect everything and gave me easy access to lay down the insulation. That said, it was a miserable project! I think I counted 27 bolts per mount. The gear did not even budge a bit until 26 bolts were out! I had to replace several of the bolts due to damaged heads from prying them out. I learned about drift pins which really helped reassemble everything but looking back, I'm not sure I would do it again.

I went a different route. I used a combination of a dragging a magnet to find anything like clecos or pull rivet nails, then I vacuumed with a flexible hose through the lightening holes, then a used a boroscope to inspect. Next I filled the void with Abesco FP200 foam. It's similar to that "Great Stuff" you see at Home Depot, but it's fireproof, closed cell - so it doesn't hold water, and doesn't expand nearly as much. It's also pink, so it matches the fiberglass (g).
I also did the back seat floors by drilling access holes aft, where the flap shaft cover will go.
You can find it everywhere on the web, but here is a sample site:
http://www.electriduct.com/Abesco-FP200-Fire-Rated-Expanding-Foam.html

John

Going to attack it!

Thank you all for your input... I think I will attempt the dremel tool idea and "not" remove the gear...Thanks again