Attaching gear leg fairing

[LettersFromFlyoverCountry]

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?

[rleffler]

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.



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.

[LettersFromFlyoverCountry]

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

[rleffler]

Originally Posted by LettersFromFlyoverCountry

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.





You can view other angles here.

http://www.myrv10.com/tips/mods/Whee...ngs/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.

[LettersFromFlyoverCountry]

One more question. This -- although it's hard to see - is the rough fit of the upper right intersection fairing.



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?

[rleffler]

Originally Posted by LettersFromFlyoverCountry

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.

[Bob Axsom]

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.





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.





Bob Axsom

[Bob Axsom]

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

[LettersFromFlyoverCountry]

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.

[GLPalinkas]

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.