Ch 9.3: Main Gear Installation (4 of 4)

Fuselage Mounts:

Be sure to mark the side
and orientation for each piece

Next up was installing the MG-1 & MG-2 fuselage hardware to support the landing gear. Instead of making these parts myself, I ordered them from the Cozy Girrls. As per all the parts I've seen from them they were first class. Any parts that are destined to get floxed to something else come professionally abraded and ready for attaching. No sanding required.

Port Side MG-1/2 installed

Installation of these parts went per plans. You might find the lengths of the attach bolts to be a little too short to ensure a couple of threads past the nuts.

Starboard Side MG-1/2 installed

Waxed used to keep flox on the outside
where it belongs.

MLG stud used to ensure the
bushings cure nice and straight.

After installing MG-1/2, I drilled out the center hole and installed the MKMG-1 bushings w/flox. When you do this, fill the end that inserts into the hole with candle wax to prevent flox from getting inside. This worked great. The bushing insert from the MLG side of the attachment hardware. Once the bushings were installed, I inserted the MLG threaded stud and let it all cure nice & straight.

Gear Attach Tab Mounts:

While all that was curing, I began the last stage of completing the gear strut attachments. This included drilling out the tabs to the correct size for the MKMGA tubes (also a Cozy Girrl part) that the attachment stud will run through, floxing the underside of the tubes, finishing off with some BID to cover and secure the entire assembly, and lastly floxing/glassing some washers on the outside of the assembly.

MKMGA tube installed and ready
for floxing

Take your time drilling out the tabs as they will build up heat and you don't want to damage the surrounding glass. Use the procedure outlined in the plans for drilling a little at a time inside and out of each tab until there is just a little left in the middle. That will keep your holes nice and straight. I found that my drill was just a little undersized compared to the tubes but my round rasp I bought at the beginning of the build was perfect for finishing it out.

Top down view of a
completed attach tab

Before floxing them in I rechecked the alignment in the fuselage after the bushings had cured. All was good...time to glue!

Glassing washer to the outside of the
tabs & alignment tubes.

The plans call for inserting foam under the tubes and then glassing it all together. I found that some folks have found the foam to wear or get destroyed over time and recommended just filling the area under the tubes with pure flox...so that's what I did. The last step was to flox washers around the external portion of the tubes & cover w/BID.

Lastly, the gear strut was remounted into the fuselage to see if it all worked out correctly. As you can see by the pictures below, the clearances between the gear attachments and the fuselage attachments of mine fit amazingly well. I dare say almost perfect. I am still amazed at how well this all goes together.