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Beejs Blog. RV Gear Done.

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Beej

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<td valign="top">Setting toe
alignment...</t>


The landing gear saga is finally coming to a close...with 1610 pounds of
cement bags on the plane, I got the toe alignment set to 0. With more weight,
she will start to toe-out, less weight, toe-in, this toe alignment shift it
seems,is very minimal as the gear squats and the weight shifts between 1800
(full gross) and 1500+. I am also happy with the resulting camber, I forgot to
measure it, but visually it was pretty obvious there was plenty ofpositive
camber at 1610.


I had already mistakenly drilled the locating bolts in the sockets, and they
neededrotating slightly,so the plan was to elongate the bolt holes, then weld
on a 1/8 patch plate over each hole. The rotation required wasn't much, so I did
this with a chainsaw file sourced from the Home Depot. Once the toe was dialed
in, I fitted the patch plates and the bolts, thenI got my MIG buddy to tack
weld the patch plates. Everything was then removed from the plane. Pant brackets
and wheels are packed away for later in the build, the legs need a top coat of
2-part paint, and the engine mount requires the patch plates to be finish
welded. A TIG buddy will do this for me, since I didn't want to use gas with all
that heat moving things.


Finishing up loose ends, my TIG buddy will also weld on a couple of finger
plates at the lower rear of the sockets where they meet the engine bolt bushing.
This plate will add more weld real estate from socket_to_bushing, and at the
same time add some torsional strength to the sockets. Since I have decided not
to have an extra pick up tube to transfer landing loads from the lower mount
bolts to the uppers' (the Pitts RV gear conversion also doesn't have this pickup tube), I added an extra
gusset that wraps around the lower bolt bushing(s). This gusset partly wraps
around the horizontal and vertical adjacent tubing, thus passing the loads
through to the upper bolt bushings. I was going to have these gussets TIG'd, but
I felt my gas welding is now becoming much better...'not the prettiest, maybe,
but I felt comfortable in gas welding them in place.


I am using the RV-10 wheelpants and whatever else comes with the RV-10
'Finishing Kit'. This is basically the pants, extended axle nuts, pant brackets
and hardware. The leg glass fairings I sourced from The F1 Rocket company which
is just down the road. The rake and squatof the legs are totally different from
the RV-10, so the Vans intersection fairings will be no good. These fairings I
will have to make from scratch.


My final conclusion regarding the weight of this gear compared to the Groves
gear:


Groves: 47.97


RV Mod: 48.30


The above takes into account the glass fairings, wood dampers, and brake
linings for the RV mod. But doesn't include the weight of the four 1/8 patch
plates to fix my drillingmistake.





Moving on...


I have decided to fit a smoke tank. I have fabricated and welded everything
in place, ready to accept the tank.


The ELT has been fitted: I fab'd some steel and welded inbehind the pilots
seat to accept the bracket.


I have now started adding all the previously made stuff, such as the brake
pedals, push-rods, throttle linkage etc. I am getting it all in so I can check
for clashes when I start planning to route the fuel lines and similar stuff. The
next step is to install the gas tank, then see what tabs I need to weld on for
the fuel lines and work out how to make an isolation valve for the upper tank to
drain into the main tank, but to be operated from the rear cockpit
:-|....


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<td valign="top" align="middle">
Buddy Rick, tack welding with a MIG...
<td valign="top" align="middle">
Gusset for lower engine mount bushings before hammering
over...</t>


 

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