Sunday, November 1, 2015

Ch 9.3: Main Gear Installation (3 of 4)

Alignment Time
It was time to see how accurate the alignment of the strut was when installed in the fuselage.  This is the ultimate test of how well I performed the previous steps.  I leveled and aligned the fuselage per the plans, marking F.S. 124.25 (firewall) and 108.25 (leading edge of the main gear strut) and ensuring everything was square and straight.  In fact I did it multiple times using my large squares and a laser.  This is not the step you want to screw up because some major holes get drilled based on this alignment that would be difficult to correct.

Starboard (Copilot) Side
Port (Pilot) Side

After leveling the fuselage, I centered the strut between the bulkheads and dropped plumbs from the strut leading edge.  I found both sides a little forward of where there were supposed to be...one about .15" forward and the other about .25".  After a little adjusting of the bulkhead holes, I was able to bring both side to almost perfect.  You can see in the pics the plumb basically dead on the line...just hope my line is actually correct :-).





After getting the the alignment set, I rechecked the level of the gear...amazingly still level !

Rechecking strut level after everything is aligned
 (Truth In Lending Statement:  This pic is actually from a prior set up...
I re-did the entire thing because the saw horse legs would move to easy
 when bumped and would mess up the entire setup.)
Digital level showing strut
 still level after alignment







The last step is the installation of the mounting hardware to the bulkheads & the gear attachment tabs.
Onward, cab