Front gear tube fairing

[GVilleFlyer]

I'm done with the wheel pants and they look great, but I'm having second thoughts about installing the front tube leg fairing. I hate the thought of drilling two holes in the tube and weakening it. Does that fairing provide any real benefits? Or is it just for looks?

 

[dbhill916]

I'm done with the wheel pants and they look great, but I'm having second thoughts about installing the front tube leg fairing. I hate the thought of drilling two holes in the tube and weakening it. Does that fairing provide any real benefits? Or is it just for looks?

I elected to just forego the nose wheel strut fairing. I discovered that I couldn't remove the lower cowling w/o removing the fairing and with the original nose gear that also meant removing the wheel pant itself. That really impacts the time to remove the cowling! It may have cost me 0.5 KIAS, but this plane isn't for going fast, it's for being fun so I don't sweat it. Another way of thinking is that I may have cost myself 5 min of total flight time, but saved myself at least a dozen maintenance hours in the last 10 years.

 

[John-G]

I'm done with the wheel pants and they look great, but I'm having second thoughts about installing the front tube leg fairing. I hate the thought of drilling two holes in the tube and weakening it. Does that fairing provide any real benefits? Or is it just for looks?

I didn't install the nose gear fairing ... I too couldn't get past the thought of drilling the nose gear tubing. No regrets.

 

[subpar_bucker]

Because I follow instructions, I installed it . You all are missing out on a great time installing the hinge pin that holds this fairing together!

When removing the cowling I only need to remove the screws holding in the tube leg fairing - not the fairing itself FYI.

 

[WJaviation]

I also chose not to use the nose gear fairing. I just couldn't bring myself to drill into the leg. I tried to come up with a neodymium magnet way to secure the fairing but decided just to take the easier route of simply leaving the fairing on the shelf.

 

[Tony_T]

The leg fairing greatly improves the looks of the nose leg and without it the leg looks like a noodle. The only real problem with installing it is drilling and tapping the very hard steel of the tube. I have done it twice (early SB to replace the leg) and the second time I drilled it in steps and final drilled a couple of drill sizes bigger to reduce the chance of breaking the tap. Use only high quality drills and taps, the hardware store stuff will lead to big headaches. As Subpar says, you do have to remove the screws on the sides of the fairing to drop the lower cowl or it hangs up on the screws when sliding down the fairing. I usually have my wheel fairing off when doing this at condition inspection but I don't recall if that is necessary, maybe so.
I'll risk my engineer reputation and say that drilling the tube at those screw location will not appreciably weaken the leg. Something else will fail before the tube will break or bend at that location. There have been nose legs broken and/or torn off (I have pictures) and they don't break there.

 

[rk2436]

If you make the slot wide enough in the you don’t have to remove the leg fairing when lowering the cowl.