Gear is down and locked!

[cjensen]

Yesterday I spent almost 8 hours in the garage working on the landing gear. It's not rolling yet, but as of last night, it was ready to!

The main gear legs slid right in with a bit of axle grease. The wheels and brakes were a pain in the a$$, but they turned out fine.



Bell fork and Rocket sealed bearing tail wheel will connect to the Tail Lynx deluxe springs from Van's.





Today, I did remove the tail wheel parts to prime and paint. I was gonna wait on this, but weathervaned on it last night, and decided to take 'em off and paint them today. It'll be rolling this week!

[dynamicjohn]

Looks great!
What was difficult with the wheels and brakes?

[cjensen]

What was difficult with the wheels and brakes?

Operator error... I had both sides fully assembled, then realized that I had installed the brake mounting flange backwards on both sides. Part of the reason is that I couldn't find a single drawing that showed this clearly, but I still should've been able to figure this out without drawings.

[weezbad]

incase you havent, set your wheel bearing preload and install the cotter pins in the axles prior to letting it down. if you have,,, well done. your project looks outstanding.

nice work

[cjensen]

Thanks Willy! I have done that already, but that's a good thing to point out!

[weezbad]

well i should have known that. but i failed to do it at the correct time and it is a bit troublesome after the fact without the open ended fastener.

[Spike]

Excellent Chad.

[painless]

Lookin' good Chad>

Getting back to that red engine mount.....My 16 year old son saw the pic you posted of your gear mounted and said, "Is he going with a Subaru??"




TOTALLY unsolicited I might add!

[cjensen]

I guess that has ruined red engine mounts for good... BTW...Egg is now using white powdercoated mounts...

[JohnR]

Chad, that looks excellent! Get it on the gear and post some photos!

[cjensen]

Chad, that looks excellent! Get it on the gear and post some photos!

Thanks John! Should be tomorrow. Tonight I re-installed the TW group after the paint had dried that I did yesterday.



I double checked everything tonight, and as long as my dad can swing by for a few minutes tomorrow evening, it'll be rolling on it's gear!

[cjensen]

It's rolling!



My dad and I after touchdown...



Pretty sweet moment to see it resting on it's own three feet! It won't last too terribly long as the engine mount will come off to fit some firewall components, but it sure looks cool now!

[bullojm1]

Hey Chad-

Congrats! How awkward is working on the inside of the fuse with the gear on? My plan once I wrap up the canopy is to get the plane on the gear, mount the engine and take care of everything firewall forward. My only concern was is being difficult to finish the panel/wiring with the fuse sitting higher. Although, I could always put a makeshift platform under the fuse to make life easier. Anyways, you opinion would be appreciated!

[cjensen]

Thanks Mike!

I worked on the canopy frame last night a bit after it was put down on the gear...access sucks. Climbing in the cabin is hard, and if you were to sit in it to work on panel stuff, you'll be leaning forward all the time.

In my opinion, and take that for what it's worth...it would be so much easier to work on panel stuff with the fuselage lower on a stand without the gear on.

My main objective in putting the gear on now, is to make the fuselage mobile while I flush out my garage. It's a disaster, and I want it clean. After I'm done with that, I plan to remove the mains and engine mount to start the canopy fitting process. After that, I'm gonna start on some panel stuff and wiring. If and when I do end up with an engine someday, it'll be one of the last things to go on.

Rob would be a great one to comment on this as he has been working on panel stuff for quite a while with his on it's gear...

I think that if you did build a platform to level the fuse with the gear on, it would be easier, but it's still sits pretty high.

[bullojm1]

Chad-

Thanks for the response. My problem is I have everything on it's way and payed for for the firewall forward (sans the FWF kit from Van's), so I would rather work on that now since I got it. Plus, the panel is the last thing I want to do with the way EFIS's are changing so rapidly. Platform might be the way to go.....OR put holes in my garage floor for the mains to sit in, yeah, that sounds LOGICAL!

[dons]

Great step forward Chad!

[TomC]

I flush out my garage. It's a disaster, and I want it clean.

Get real! I can see pictures of your garage in the pictures. If I cleaned my garage, it would still be messier than your garage.

[cjensen]

OR put holes in my garage floor for the mains to sit in, yeah, that sounds LOGICAL!

That'd be sweet!! I LIKE this idea!

[cjensen]

I flush out my garage. It's a disaster, and I want it clean.

Get real! I can see pictures of your garage in the pictures. If I cleaned my garage, it would still be messier than your garage.

I know, I know...it's messy to me I guess...

[papakeith]

Congrats on getting the legs on. serious MVP!.

But, THIS is messy!