Here is a question to which I probably know the answer beforehand, but I need a confirmation.
I spent several hours to cut the holes for the gear mount socket in the forward bottom skin (F-772) to "perfection", which came out with about a 0.25mm gap all the way around. I was very pleased with that.
Then I found that this hole needs to be opened up to allow installation of the landing gear mount. With little enthusiasm I started widening that hole (inward and forward). It turns out that I needed to open up this hole a lot (about 6mm at the widest gap) and I am still not quite there (I expect another 2mm wider). It is really hard to get the landing gear mount in (with the skin clecoed in place). The final hurdle is to get the landing gear mount flange over the platenuts riveted to the flange of F-704 (I made sure that no cleco is obstructing the installation).
I understand that eventually the gear fairing will cover this area, but does this cutout really need to be THAT BIG?? Is there a trick how to twist the landing gear mount in? Should I cut notches in the landing gear mount for the platenut (I am mostly kidding with that last question)?
Here is a link to a picture of this cutout:
So how big did your opening turn out? Is there a trick to installing the landing gear mount??
I spent several hours to cut the holes for the gear mount socket in the forward bottom skin (F-772) to "perfection", which came out with about a 0.25mm gap all the way around. I was very pleased with that.
Then I found that this hole needs to be opened up to allow installation of the landing gear mount. With little enthusiasm I started widening that hole (inward and forward). It turns out that I needed to open up this hole a lot (about 6mm at the widest gap) and I am still not quite there (I expect another 2mm wider). It is really hard to get the landing gear mount in (with the skin clecoed in place). The final hurdle is to get the landing gear mount flange over the platenuts riveted to the flange of F-704 (I made sure that no cleco is obstructing the installation).
I understand that eventually the gear fairing will cover this area, but does this cutout really need to be THAT BIG?? Is there a trick how to twist the landing gear mount in? Should I cut notches in the landing gear mount for the platenut (I am mostly kidding with that last question)?
Here is a link to a picture of this cutout:
So how big did your opening turn out? Is there a trick to installing the landing gear mount??