Another Way to Hold Your Pants

So I was staring off into space after breathing too much epoxy and got this idea to re purpose one of the blocks of wood from the trim tabs:



Should allow adjusting up/down and tilt with one knob. The fabric looking stuff is a strip of grippy shelf liner allowing the tail end to get wedged into the notch and stay (too lazy to custom cut the outline of the pant end). I will have to get on with the fitting to see if it's a good idea or not...

==dave==

That should work just fine, but be sure you jack the plane off the ground--------wheel pant alignment is done with no load on the gear, as in flight.

I'm still working on how to do that without jacks, but wanted to get the photo. Without the engine the tail is on a sawhorse, so I'm thinking I'll hoist the front end with the engine hoist and adjust it and the sawhorse for level. Then I have to take care of the roll axis...

==dave==

Make yourself a set of jacks.

Mine were about $85. Couple Harbor Freight cylinders, couple pieces of 3/8" flat iron, and 10 minutes with the welder.

I tie down the tail from the ring, use a ratched strap to a eyebolt in the floor. As you do not yet have the engine on, a bit easier for you.

Here is a thread that might give you an idea or two.

http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=68674&highlight=pants

BigD said:

I'm still working on how to do that without jacks, but wanted to get the photo. Without the engine the tail is on a sawhorse, so I'm thinking I'll hoist the front end with the engine hoist and adjust it and the sawhorse for level. Then I have to take care of the roll axis...

==dave==

Click to expand...

You may know this already, but make sure you hoist by the engine mount, or around the bottom of the engine or something other than what looks like the engine hoist ring on top of the engine - that ring works for putting the engine on, but is apparently not built for hoisting the engine plus part of the fuselage.

Greg

BigD said:

I'm still working on how to do that without jacks, but wanted to get the photo. Without the engine the tail is on a sawhorse, so I'm thinking I'll hoist the front end with the engine hoist and adjust it and the sawhorse for level. Then I have to take care of the roll axis...

==dave==

Click to expand...

That should work just fine.

Well I have built five RVs without jacking them off the ground, but did the pants while the wings were still off. Much less weight then and easy to work on it.

You just jack the AC one side at a time and lower it it down again. You will now notice that the wheels will sit almost at the in the flight attitude. "curled in" if you like to call it that. But it will change again if you roll it backwards and forwards a couple of times - beware of that.

Then fit the pants.