Nosedragger wheelpant

Fellow builders:
I am beginning to mount/fabricate the nosewheel pant on my 9A project. I am somewhat perplexed at Van's design that you must jack up the plane, remove the front tire and axel, just to take the pant on and off . I am considering modification using platenuts and screws on the brackets (U813C) that the axel passes through and just leave them on the fork.
Just curious as to how others have approached/modified the situation. Tail draggers need not comment

thanks
doug
N625DK

I've seen the nose done that way several times. Looks great and very easy to remove if needed. If it works for the mains it should work for the nose also. The only way to fly IMHO.

That's the way I did it. So far no regrets. Removing all the screws is a bit tedious, but still easier than taking off the wheel, in my opinion. A further advantage is you don't need the two big holes, and then hole covers, to allow access to the axle bolt.

John Miller

The installation is so obvious

The better installation is so obvious that I would be greatly surprised if many people actually do it per plans.

Bob Axsom

Guess I'm slow

I followed the plans on mine not even considering doing it differently. Guess I caused the demise of too many brain cells in my younger years to be thinking outside the box on occasion. I figured it'd be easy enough to just tie the tail down in my hangar(like I do with my current ride, a C172) for any sort of NLG maintenance. If it turns out to be a hassle I can always change it later with a couple new brackets.

nose wheel fairing

Doug, I recently ordered a new wheel pant and nose gear fairing along with the new style fork. I don't know how old your stuff is, but Van's has totally redesigned the installation since I did mine 2 years ago. For one the wheel pant can now come off without lifting the front end and removing the wheel. Another change is the main brackets that hold the wheel pant to the fork are much larger and beefier. The surface area where they hold the wheel pant is 3 or 4 times the size of the old ones which should help dramaticlly when using a tow bar to not break out pieces of fiberglass if the tow bar slips off of the axle. These plates are attached to the fairing with number 10 countersunk screws with stainless tinnerman washers to disperse the stress over a much larger surface area on the glass compared to the 3/32" rivets per the old way. Simply remove 4 screws per side off of the rear half of the wheel pant and slide it backwards. If you are working with the old style hardware I'd personally stop before going any further and order the new brackets and the new print to work from. My original nose wheel fairing was broken by somebody else who was moving my airplane with the tow bar and had to be fixed before the plane was painted. I've also heard of others having problems with this. If your using the old style fork I'd also recommend changing that out before finalizing your fairing. There has been significant debate on the forums about the nose gear issues on the RV's and after changing the fork and seeing how Van's has beefed up the fairing installation I can now see that they did take the issue seriously and addressed it. The extra clearance on the fork is about 1" in the front to keep the Nut from digging into the ground, and the fairing is attached much better to the fork. This may or may not cure all possable problems, but it certainly would have gone a long way to keep me from having the problems that I did several months ago. If you have the old style fork you will need to send your nose gear leg to Harmon Lange to have it shortened and re-threaded. I got mine back from Harmon last Tuesday and it looks great. He provided a fast turn time also.

Here's a link to the problem that I had several months ago.
http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showpost.php?p=21677&postcount=140

Tow bars? We Don't Need No stinking Tow Bars!

I just carefully push the plane back using the castering nose wheel for steering without letting it get too far off center. That nose wheel fairing starts getting real sleek without the big holes in the sides. That's another thing I could not live with in the original design.

Bob Axsom

The problem with tow bars is the allen head bolts they hold on to. I suspect that Bryan Wood's problem was the tow bar slipped of the bolts and started to dig in to the wheel pant. It really can't take the stress of a tow bar. I have found, a so have others, that a quick solution is to add a couple of thick washers to each allen bolt. That makes the bolt stick out farther thus giving the tow bar more to hold on to. With a little practice though, you don't even need the tow bar.