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Gear Leg + Upper Intersection Fairings

Xkuzme1

Well Known Member
I started on my annual at the beginning of the month. It?s a big annual. I?ve been kicking the can down the road on a few items and it was time to jump in. Well, I not only jumped in with both feet, I jumped in with a credit card and a couple expensive phone calls. I also jumped in looking to find a better way.

My gear legs, and upper/lower gear leg fairings in my 4 take a beating. Beating. My uppers connect to the fuselage with 2 rib nuts. One in the front one in the back. I?m sure like the rest of us... it is frustrating how much they get beat up.

Here is my idea.

I?m considering trying to connect them to the fuselage with Velcro (ok... hook and loop). I?m also considering using the soft side of the Velcro as a wear tape of sorts. Put wrap the gear legs inside of the uppers and lowers to keep them from getting beat up too. It?s seems that the Velcro might offer enough movement that it would take away the rigidity that is part of the whole problem to begin with.

I?d love to hear some opinions.

Lemme have it.

T
 
I played with using Velcro on my -4 thirty some years ago when finishing mine. The Velcro did not allow a flush fit between fairing and fuselage. Also since the fairings help to hold the aluminum gear leg fairing in alignment I didn't think Velcro would suffice. My solution was to use Rivnuts for a #8 screw. One towards the leading edge of the glass fairing, one towards the trailing edge, and one midpoint bottom side.
 
I attached mine with 2 nut plates at the metal fairing and 2 nut plates on the cowling. They dont budge.
 
Do yours not get beat up from the cowling and spring gear landings constantly moving the Gear fairings against the upper fairings?
 
What I did..

My fairings (intersection and leg ) have near zero visible wear after 10 years of many, not always good, landings. I was very diligent in doing everything I could to mitigate wear issues due to the significant amount of movement. I made my uppers fairly robust and solidly attached, the lower intersections are bonded to the pants, and the glass leg fairing is only attached at the top per plans. I found that the top of the leg fairing needed trimmed at a pretty good clearance from the fuselage at the trailing edge, or it would contact the fuselage. I also used Teflon urethane paint inside both intersection fairings to allow the leg fairing to "slide" in them. Send me a PM if you'd like pictures..my firewall wont allow web pic hosting , or I'd post them here...one day I will figure how to do it from my phone!
 
Upper Intersection Fairings

I will start with the intersection fairings in early next year, so this thread comes in timely. Some pictures would be appreciated ;) I sent a PM to Bill.

What is generally regarded an adequate clearance between the fuselage skin and the trailing edge of the gear leg fairing? There is no guidance on the plans.
 
Clearance

I had what I thought was reasonable clearance on the T/E of my leg fairing initially, but noticed when I had removed my intersection fairings for cowling removal that the corner had contacted (and lightly dented) the underlying fuselage structure, so I trimmed it back further to gain more clearance. I was amazed at how far the leg must flex at times. My intersection fairings are also "split" by design at the T/E so leg fairing can flex it open when sprung aft. Id say my clearance from the leg fairing T/E to the fuselage is about 1 -1 1/2".
 
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