After more than two months away from the project, I am finally back.
I had to go to Dallas, Texas back in may for three weeks, for practical maintenance training on the Phenom 300. Then just after returning, I had to go for maintenance training on Spitfires in the UK, which was AWESOME!!! 😀
After that we spent 3 weeks of holiday at Samsø, a lovely island here in Denmark.
Back in the shop, I have been working on the wheel fairings and leg fairings.
I had previously sanded the wheel fairing halves, for a better fit. I marked the fastener locations, and drilled holes for cleco’s.

I then measured and cut the openings for the main gear leg. I have added a 1 inch spacer on top of the tire, as per the plans.

To properly align the wheel fairings, I had to level the plane, then hang a plumb bob to mark the center line in both ends of the plane.
Then I taped a string between these marks for reference.

The outboard wheel fairing brackets didn’t sit flush against the wheel fairings, so I had to add some extra fiberglass to these areas.

After carefully aligning the wheel fairings, I drilled the fastener holes.

I then removed the landing gear leg and fairing assembles, to trace the wheel dimension to the wheel fairings. I decided for a half inch clearance.

I then removed the wheel fairing brackets and prepared them for primer.

After priming, I riveted on the nutplates.

For the outboard brackets, I mixed som epoxy with cotton fibres, and glued them in place.

After the epoxy had cured, I removed the cleco’s, countersunk and riveted them.

…and could then continue installing the landing gear leg fairing.

They are fixed to the legs at the top, using stainless steel clamp. Unfortunately I realized to late, that I had installed them facing forward.
The brake lines on the RV-7 are supposed to run on the forward side of the legs, so I will have to close these holes and reinstall them facing aft.

Last thing I did, was to add 4 layers of epoxy to the mounting spots inside the wheel fairings. The walls are pretty thin here, and will not support the fairings sufficient.




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