What's new
Van's Air Force

Don't miss anything! Register now for full access to the definitive RV support community.

Attaching gear leg fairing

LettersFromFlyoverCountry

Well Known Member
Just curious how people are attaching the lower gear leg fairings (the ones that Cleaveland sells)? Are you bonding it to the wheel pant or installing nutplates and screwing them on?
 
I have the RVBits fairing from Cleaveland too. Mine are the RV-10 version, but the concept is the same. As I mentioned on FB, I cut mine in half along the seam and epoxied them to the pant. I also added a micro fillet on the inside for a little more strength to the joint.Here's a photo in process.

FP04042012A0001M.jpg


Here's a more completed view. Note that the pants aren't fully seated in this photo, so the gap appears wider than it really is.

FP27062012A0001C.jpg
 
Pretty. And then are the "front" and "rear" halves connected together at all?

Not on the fairings. Only attached at the wheel pant per plans.

Here's a finished photo of Vic Syracuse's RV-10 (his first one) that was taken at OSH a few years ago by Tim Olson.

P7290078.JPG




You can view other angles here.

http://www.myrv10.com/tips/mods/WheelFairings/index.html

As you can see, it saves taking out a few more screws when taking the pants off. I also think it looks nicer too.
 
One more question. This -- although it's hard to see - is the rough fit of the upper right intersection fairing.

upperrightintersectionfairi.jpg


The rubber channel that goes between the fuse and the wing gap fairing goes all the way to end of the wing gap fairing. It also interferes with the intersection fairing and keeps it from sitting flush against the bottom of the fuselage.

Would you:

(a) Cut the rubber channel so that it doesn't interfere with the seating of the intersection fairing;
(b) Notch the intersection fairing to accommodate the rubber channel;
or
(c) Something else?
 
Would you:

(a) Cut the rubber channel so that it doesn't interfere with the seating of the intersection fairing;
(b) Notch the intersection fairing to accommodate the rubber channel;
or
(c) Something else?

Good questions....

The RV-10 doesn't have the rubber channel, so I don't have any personal experience. My upper fairing was done per plans.

I would probably notch the fairing, since the fairing's structural integrity would be less impacted than notching the rubber channel. I would be curious as to how other RV-7 builder's solved this issue.
 
Do whatever works to the Fairing - don't cut rubber

I made my own fairings for the intersections using the modeling clay, fiberglass and mold release wax method. The flanges on mine were molded in place and accommodate the rubber seal but with your generic cuff fairing you can add flanges, etc. as required. I would not leave a hard fiberglass end edge free to beat against the aluminum skin without some provision to prevent damage.

IMG-33.jpg


IMG_0001-17.jpg


My lower fairings at the intersection of the strut fairing and wheel pants were done exactly the same as those shown earlier. I shaped the modeling clay the way I wanted it and applied mold release wax where I didn't want it to be permanently attached and laid up the first layer. You don't need all of that so I will stop on that process description.

IMG_0002-10.jpg


IMG_0003-5.jpg


Bob Axsom
 
Last edited:
Mounting of the upper intersection fairing

You need two cuts or seams in the fairings in order to install and remove them. In the upper MLG intersection fairings I chose to locate mine on the trailing edge and on the inboard surface rather than the more traditional inboard and outboard 50/50 location. You need three point mounting to stabilize the installation. The main part of my fairing consists of roughly 75% of the fairing as you can see in the earlier photos. Its three points are into the fuselage and the wing root closure strip. The other 25% is the inboard aft segment and its three points are one in the fuselage and two in an aluminum extension from the other part of the cuff.

Bob Axsom
 
Last edited:
I'd like to see some more images, please, of how people secured the upper intersection fairings on 7A models.

Also, last night I tossed the upper fairings I bought from Cleaveland and went back to the Van's mold that they sell (still using the Cleaveland ones for the wheel pant fairing, though). The Cleaveland version are too long and the Van's ones account for the dip between the bottom of the fuselage and the bottom of the wing-gap fairing, which the Cleaveland ones do not, or at least do not very well.
 
Just One Solution

Bob, I used the fairings from Jan/Cleaveland and they fit well with a little heat gun work. I used 4- #8 screws with each fairing. The screws in the cowl go into nutplates and the screws in the fuselage go into keyed Rivnuts. This has served me well in 100 hours. I can drop a fairing by removing 4 screws. I decided not to glass them in because I just wanted to be done and they fit very well. YMMV
Sorry but I don't have any close up photos with me. You can still see the screws in the close-up.

123mwau.jpg


16a8761.jpg
 
It's a lot harder with an "A" model. Nothing wraps around. If you drill on the front inboard side, you might miss the weldment for the gear leg tower above, but only by about 1/8" if you're lucky. A screw location further aft will put you between the spars, which ain't great access.

I GUESS people are installing nutplates on the underside of their wing root fairings to secure the inboard side but, like I say, I would like to see how they're doing this.

The problem with the Cleaveland upper fairings isn't the fit per se (they're not as wavy as the Van's ones), it's that they're too long and also they follow the rubber channel of the wing root fairing, making it difficult to get a nice flush fit with the underside of the fuselage. And, like I said, they don't compensate for the dip between the bottom of the fuselage and the bottom of the wing root fairing.

But, again, the wheel pant fairing is nice. Still, $185 is a lot of money to pay for two usable fairings.
 
I understand your frustration

$185 is a lot of money to pay for something that leaves you very little better off work wise than if you did it from scratch and the darn things look like sails. I can suggest three options: 1 - try to send them back for a refund; 2 - try to use the good features with extra fiberglass modifications to customise them for your needs: 3 - throw then in the sacrifice pile and build custom fairings from scratch. I sense that you are in that phase where you know something is not right but you just want to move on without another personal work project.

Good luck with your decision. If you choose to try to "roll your own" it is educational, relatively easy and satisfying. I have some photos that I can copy from my 4 volume Build Photo Album set for our RV-6A but at this point it might be inflamatory and neither of us wants that.

Bob Axsom
 
I sense that you are in that phase where you know something is not right but you just want to move on without another personal work project.

I'd kind of like to roll my own... At least the upper ones. The prob is I also want to get the ship to (a) Cleveland (to fullfill the wish of my son) and (b) the East Coast (so that my mother can see the ship and she's 90...time is of the essence).

I could fly without any leg fairings or intersections but gas is $5.69 a gallon and I'm kinda cheap so I'd kind of like to have them in place for the above two trips.

I like to putter around the plane so taking on a "roll your own" doesn't bother me a bit. It's the timing that's a problem.
 
Gear legs

Bob, It was great to meet and talk to you in Mitchell, SD, I was with the Spruce Creek bunch. I was just wondering what you used to fill the gear leg fairings on your plane? My 7a gets a lot of air into the cockpit from the mains ( I always know when I am to heavy on the brakes ). Thanks in advance Gene
 
First the fill of the strut fairings

I just filled the ends with foaming adhesive from the hardware store as directed by Tracy Saylor. Do not use that soft curing stuff they use for window sealing - it cures to the consistency of marshmallows - you want the rigid stuff. Spray (squirt?) it in the ends only, leave a cavity in the middle.

IMG-34.jpg


IMG_0001-18.jpg


I also have an inverted "T" riveted to the inside of the strut fairing and the extended shaft is clamped to the strut with a hose clamp.

IMG_0002-11.jpg


After it cured I just trimmed away the excess and it was done. I also applied RTV around all the openings in this area of the fuselage where there was a skin penetration. I use a lot of Dow 736 but for this application you can use whatever you can get from an auto parts store.

Bob Axsom
 
Last edited:
The way I made the upper fairing

I formed modeling clay to the shape I wanted right over the rubber and everything else that I wanted to cover with the fairing. Then I appied mold release wax to everything in the area.

IMG_0003-6.jpg


IMG_0004-3.jpg


Then I mixed my A & B parts of EZ Poxy (24 hr cure) and progressively impregnated short strips of 2" wide fiberglass cloth (yes I know they call it tape) by softly pounding it in with a sponge (small piece cut - maybe an inch wide - from a small sponge) loaded with epoxy resin and applying them to cover the area I want covered.

IMG_0005-1.jpg


I always pop off the first layer and almost never have to go back to the mold on these small things. When I make a wingtip I always go back on the mold to apply the next layer.

IMG_0006-2.jpg


IMG_0007-4.jpg


My standard on these fairing things and even my wingtips is 3 layers of fiberglass. On the windshield molding I think I used 9 layers.

IMG_0008-2.jpg


Bob Axsom
 
Last edited:
Saw this only now. Guys I have sold a lot of these fairings and this is the first time I read about the uppers not fitting properly.

No matter how hard we try to make a perfect fairing, they do get disformed a bit during shipping. Slide it in position and drill the attach holes. Three to four will do. Then cleco and heat up with a heat gun and let it settle. The fit will improve.

"Looking like sails" someone commented :) They are made slightly bigger/longer in order for each builder to trim it back to where they personally like like it.

The best way to fit the uppers is to use plate nuts on the wing root fairing and rivnuts on the belly.

With regards to the rubber, just make a small recess in the fairing where the rubber is.

I really hopes this helps.
 
Last edited:
With regards to the rubber, just make a small recess in the fairing where the rubber is.

I tried notching it but the portion where the fairing contacts the fuse pretty well follows the channel all the way down to about 1" from the aft edge. So I'd have to slice pretty much the whole side and then lay up glass over it to make it look decent.

I can certainly do that, but it would take a fair amount of time. And for the heck of it, I dragged the Van's ones I'd bought out of the box of old useless things, I found they fit a bit better. Of course, those need a lot of glass work too, but the difference is the "joggle" over the uneven area between the wing gap fairing and the bottom of the fuselage (at least on my plane; I might've built it wrong).

vans_fairings.jpg


... and probably will require less work.

The lower intersection fairings, however, are no contest. I just had to move one nutplate connecting the front and back wheel pant (you can see the one that had to be moved in the following picture, it would get covered when I smoothed out some slurry), and shave off a little clearance for the inboard lower screw that holds the back half of the wheel pant in place.

sa_fairing.jpg


I was going to go with the "screw it on and be done with it" method, but now I'm leaning toward the "screw it on, slurry the edge, and slice it on the seam" style.

I'm not going to trim the aft edge at all because I rather like the look.

By the way, in Bob's images above, it looks like he split the fairings and then bonded. Is that the preferred way? Or would it be better to bond the fairings and then split them?
 
Last edited:
It depends on the application, etc.

On the wheel fairings I made the the intersection fairings part of the wheel fairings from the start. Then I made my cuts through that flimsy first layer for separation with the main fairings. That not only got everything together from the start but it also provided a more stable base to work on. The first layer is easy to make a fine cut with an X-acto knife (buy some extra blades because fiberglass does not like being cut with dull or gummed up blades). After that it is a much more significant task. The upper fairings I cut to remove them (don't forget the mold release wax) and built them up off of the airplane as two separate pieces. You kind of get a feel for what is going to work as you do these things.

Bob Axsom
 
Upper Fairing

I thought that when the weight was taken off of the wheels, as in flight, the flex of the main gear leg moved inward thereby setting the upper fairing into their intended place as in a tighter fit, conforming to the fuselage.
I believe that Vans states this in the builder's manual.
Am I wrong?
 
Like a lot of other people, I didn't bother taking the weight off the wheels in the fitting once I realized that the weight issue doesn't impact the alignment of the trailing edge of the fairing, which is all I really care about.

The movement of the leg fairing would impact the up/down position of the fairing within the intersection fairings (which is why the fairings are not permanently attached to the intersection fairings in either location), but it would not impact the alignment of the trailing edge.

That alignment is "captured" by the position of the fairings around the gear leg.

I obsessed -- capital "O" -- over the alignment of the trailing edge. I used lasers and dental floss. I set and checked it dozens of times before finally committing on Saturday with the installation of the intersection fairings (haven't bonded them yet, though).

It seems to me that there's still opportunity for slop in the trailing edge and that the fairings -- at least at this stage -- cannot perfectly capture the trailing edge.

fairings_sat.jpg


But, I installed them as best I could, took it for a quick test flight around the pattern and all seemed good.

So we stuck my mother in law in...

oralie_ride_1.jpg


and went for a ride down to Red Wing and back...

oralie_ride_2.jpg


Yahtzee!! The ball was dead centered. It was perfect.

I still have to do the nosewheel leg fairing (I need to cut away more of the slot in the wheelpant to allow the front of the gear leg fairing to fit without interference, and then I'll do the clay-mold things for the intersection fairing.

Oh, and I used a small piece of duct tape to close up the trailing edge of all the intersection fairings. As I get everything glassed up, those, of course, will disappear with bonding. And then I'll slice it as Bob Leffler described above.

I like when things come out the way they're supposed to.
 
Last edited:
Sorry to bump an old post but it's relevant to this topic. I'm working on my RV-10 wheel pants and decided to do the molded looks with the aftermarket fairing pieces as well.

I've glassed in 3 layers for an overlap and am now working on the micro blending and all that. This is going to take a bit because I'm working the front, then I'll go and work the back, taping the opposite piece and then doing the micro for that part. I'm also doing this while it's mounted to the plane with the leg fairing so it will be more of a precises fit.

Now here's my dilemma, If I don't use clamps on these pieces the split actually lifts about 1/8" from the leg fairing. Is this normal? I'm not sure how rigid these pieces actually need to be. I assume if it's too rigid I can't get it off the leg fairing, if it's not rigid enough will it end up causing issues in the future? Apologize no pictures but it's all clamped up right now while some micro dries.

Thanks
 
Last edited:
Back
Top