Mark Henderson
Well Known Member
I am just finishing installing the wheel pants on my 12. I thought I would add my impressions of the kit. As with the rest of the 12, it is well made. There are a couple of things that I did not especially like. I did not want to have to take the pants off to check or fill the tires. I decided to drill a 3/4" hole in the main pants and use the Cleveland stem extension as others have suggested. Tony T noted that the 3/4" holes in the brackets line up with the valve stem. After I had drilled the 13/16 holes in the nose wheel pant I realized that these do not line up with valve stem. These holes are 4" from the center of the axle, but the valve stem is only 2". Had I thout about this I would have drilled new holes in the nose wheel bracket at 2" and corresponding holes in the nose wheel pant. This way I would not have to take the pants apart, or drill a second hole.
The plans call for you to countersunk the 6-32 screws to connect the main wheel fore and aft sections together.The glass is pretty thin, and I was concerned about cracking down the road. There was a Cirrus SR-22 parked across the Tarmac from my hanger, so I looked at their fairings. They used pan head screws to hold the 2 halves together. It is a 185 kt cruiser, but they did not try to counter sink these fittings. I decided not to either. After all, with 12,000 pop rivets, would 18 pan head screws make a difference? The other thing of note is how The Cirrus secured the fairing on the nose wheel leg. Vans wants us to secure it to the leg with 2 8-32 screws, and then hold it together with a piano hinge. The Cirrus only seems to use a single screw to hold it close. After trial fitting the fairing on the nose leg, I can't imagine at out cruise speeds that the piano hinge is necessary. Since I have flown off my phase 1, I do not need to follow the plans or risk being out of compliance with ELSA. I think I will copy some of the SR-22 details.
The plans call for you to countersunk the 6-32 screws to connect the main wheel fore and aft sections together.The glass is pretty thin, and I was concerned about cracking down the road. There was a Cirrus SR-22 parked across the Tarmac from my hanger, so I looked at their fairings. They used pan head screws to hold the 2 halves together. It is a 185 kt cruiser, but they did not try to counter sink these fittings. I decided not to either. After all, with 12,000 pop rivets, would 18 pan head screws make a difference? The other thing of note is how The Cirrus secured the fairing on the nose wheel leg. Vans wants us to secure it to the leg with 2 8-32 screws, and then hold it together with a piano hinge. The Cirrus only seems to use a single screw to hold it close. After trial fitting the fairing on the nose leg, I can't imagine at out cruise speeds that the piano hinge is necessary. Since I have flown off my phase 1, I do not need to follow the plans or risk being out of compliance with ELSA. I think I will copy some of the SR-22 details.