- 7.2 Nose Gear Installation (Door mechanism)
- 7.8.2 Landing Gear Plumbing – Dump Valve
- 7.8.2 Landing Gear Plumbing – Bulkhead fittings
- 7.8.2 Landing Gear Plumbing – Dump Valve
- 7.8.2 Landing Gear Plumbing.
- 7.8.2 Landing Gear Plumbing
- 7.8.4 Landing Gear Electrical
- 7.0 Landing Gear Retract Test
- 7.0 Landing Gear Retract Test II
- 7.7.3 Main Gear Doors
- 7.7.2 Parking Brake
- 7.8.4 – Landing Gear Electrical
- 7.8.4 Main gear microswitch wire routing
- 7.8.4 Main Gear Micro Switches
- 7.8.4 Nose Gear Up Microswitch mount
- 7.6.3 / 7.8.1 Install Landing Gear Hydraulic Cylinders
- 7.1 Nose Gear Door Installation
- 7.1 Nose Gear Door Installation
- 7.6.1 Main Gear Pulley Installation
- 7.6.1 Main Gear Pulley Installation
- 7.2.1 Nose Gear Installation
- 7.2.1 Nose Gear Installation
- 7.4.1 Gear Leg Cut Out
- 7.2.5 Nose Gear Guides
- 7.8.1 Hydraulic Power Pack Installation
- 7.4.3 Transverse Bulkhead Installation
- 7.5 Main Gear Bushings
- 7.4.3 Transverse Bulkhead Installation
- 7.6.2 Main Gear Sockets
- 7.7.1 Main Gear Leg UpStops
- 7.7.3 Main Gear Doors
- 7.7.3 Main Gear Doors
- 7.7.1 Main Gear Legs (Painting)
- 7.2 Nose Gear Door Mechanism
- 7.3 Nose Gear Door Mechanism
- 11.1.4 Lower Cowling to Wing Flanges
- Nose gear spring replacement
- 7.2 – Nose Gear Door Actuator Replacement
- 7-99 Sealing the Nose Landing Gear
I decided to continue with the last thing I was working on in Florida (Main Landing Gear – MLG). When they build the fuselage, They mount the MLG but only to the point that they can roll the fuselage around. They won’t retract. The first task was open up the side of the fuselage so the legs could come up.
Here’s the left side main gear leg.
You’ll notice where the leg exits the fuselage, there’s an opening that’s a little bigger than the leg itself. When the gear is raised, that leg will swing up. But the hole isn’t big enough to allow that which means it has to be… bigger. But how big? Here’s my first dilemma: The book doesn’t really say. I was expecting a template that you would lay against the side and mark where to cut. Nope. No template. The book just says cut it, not how big. I’m a little nervous cutting when I don’t know where to cut so I fussed about this quite a bit. Down in Florida, I would have looked at another plane or asked someone and have been done. Instead, I reread the manual about 30 times, looked at pictures on other builders websites and read the manual again thinking I overlooked something. Finally, I just raised the leg and cut a little. And repeated this maybe 12 times until the leg would raise the correct amount.
This the result of 2 hours of research and 45 minutes of cut, check, cut, check, cut check…
Gear leg up. (I removed the wheel to make it easier to work with.)
Once I knew how big the opening needed to be, the other side took about 15 minutes. This is where the time black hole is going to come from. The whole task is probably slated to take 30 minutes for both sides, but it took me over 3 hours.