Modified Fairing For New Style Nose Fork

[Finley Atherton]

As far as I am aware there is no new Nose Wheel pant yet available to take advantage of the increased clearance between the big nut and the ground offered by the new style nose fork, so this is what I have come up with. The photos show my nose cone that has been raised at the bottom to increase the ground clearance between the bottom of the nose cone and the ground.

With the tyre inflated at 40 psi there is 3.8” clearance between the fairing and the ground in the area underneath the strut/nut. It still may not sound like much but it is about the same as I measured on a Piper Warrior and in the flesh it looks considerably better than the clearance with the original nose cone. It is hard to imagine this pant bottoming on anything other than an extreme ridge/hole.

In the second photo you will see a couple of blobs of flox (idea taken from Vern Little). The blob on the lower surface just clears the bottom of the nut/ bottom of the strut and the fwd blob is more or less flush up against the fwd face of the fork. So in the event of the nose cone grounding, the cone should nestle up against the fork making it a more secure skid surface. The flox on the lower surface is reasonably thick (minimum is about 0.4” under the fwd edge of the strut) and makes the whole of the bottom of the fairing rigid and strong.

Making this modified nose cone the way I did was not as easy or straight forward as you might think. I modified my original nose cone to get the correct shape and then used this to make a mold, which I then used to make the nose cone in the photo. The nose cone is a bit thicker and more rigid and feels much stronger than the original. I made it with 5 layers of glass (Bi-directional RA7725 from ACS).

I am very happy with how this turned out and I feel that with the extra clearance and the skid type construction it will take a mighty bad bump/hole to cause me grief.
Fin 9A


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[mark manda]

wheel pant-- fairing okay i know what you mean.

i thought perhaps there is a new nose wheel leg fairing since the one supplied is still the old one right?

I have a problem keeping my hose clamp on the fairing.

glad things are working out. i sometimes loose elevator authority and the nose wheel ping pongs on the runway and nothing I can do about it. so if that coincides with a hole or rut, i might have a problem even with the new one.

i like your design and good photos. got any of your hose clamp on the fairing?