Tip: Floor Stiffener Interence with Main Gear mounts -7A/-9A

[IowaRV9Dreamer]

Here is a tip for you. When you are building your forward fuselage floor, remember that you will be installing landing gear mounts someday.

In particular - the 2 outboard floor stiffeners (F-972B on my plans) run from the firewall to the center section. They come "joggled" from Vans so they fit over the flange of the center section. Seems easy, just rivet 'em on, right?

Wrong. What I didn't know was that you must leave room between the floor stiffener vertical web and the center section web for the main landing gear mount. This picture explains it all (please no loose bolt comments, this is just preliminary fitting).


You can see that the white landing gear mount must fit between the gold bulkhead and the grey floor stiffener. Easy to fix... unless the sitffener is riveted onto the plane with very little clearance to work in

If you haven't left enough room, buy a dremel tool, a flexible shaft extension, and a reinforced cutoff wheel. Prepare to be covered in aluminum dust.

Don't me like me - think ahead!

[John Tierney]

This is a well know problem on Quick Build fuselages. What was odd with mine was one side needed filing/grinding, but the other did not.

John Tierney

[lorne green]

No problem on my 7a quick build. The land gear bracket fit right in with no modification, but did have to be shoe-horned in.