SECTION 48: GEAR LEG & WHEEL FAIRINGS

Build Instruction Updates

• 05/21/19 48_10.pdf

Check for more recent updates here

Properly aligning wheel pants and gear leg fairings is a tedious procedure. For maximum in-flight drag reduction, final alignment must be done with the aircraft’s weight off the wheels.

General

• For identifying hinges, see Van's hinge FAQ

Page 48-4

• Step 2: note that there may be a seam on the top of each wheel pant but that seam is NOT centered.
• Step 3: if the opening doesn't line up between the front and back pieces go ahead and trim one of the pieces until they have a similar-sized opening. You'll be trimming the opening more once you have it installed on the wheel.
• Step 4: it might seem that the only important dimension on this block is the 1-1/4 height but you'll be using it later for the nosewheel where the height needs to be 7/8". So if you make this block exactly as described you can use it for all three wheels.

Page 48-5

• Figure 1: consider screwing a taller block directly into the rear point of the wheel pant (at the approx. 9-5/16 mark referenced in the drawing). You'll need to take the wheel pants on and off quite a few times and once screwed in you will set a constant vertical alignment.

Screwed wood into aft of wheel pant to fix a consistent vertical alignment (adjusted for the height the wheel is off of the ground).

Page 48-6

• Step 1: Countersinking the 1/4 inch hole is discussed on this FB thread

Page 48-8

• Step 1: Most likely the trailing edge of your fairings will extend 1/2" or more past the cut line and you'll want to trim that later (even though the plans never mention to do that). What's useful here, though, is you can install some Clecos along the trailing edge aft of that cut line and it will maintain the shape much better than using tape, etc.
• Step 4: For opaque fairings, there are several ways to deal with the problem of how to make matching holes. Marking on the hinge will probably not be useful.
  • You can Cleco the trailing edge of the fairing together (past the cut line) and then rest the hinge inside. Mark on the outside of the fairing where the hinge sits, then use those marks to draw a center line on the outside of the fairing. Clamp the hinge in place and drill from the outside into the hinge.
  • See this FB thread for additional options.

Page 48-9

• Step 3: If you put a hole in the fiberglass for the safety wire it is easy to rip that hole open when using standard safety wire pliers. Consider putting a hole in the flange of the hinge pin for the safety wire.

Page 48-10

• Step 2: The plans make it sound like you can just pick any arbitrary point on the step and drop a plumb bob, but that won't work. You need to figure out how far in/out on the step will line up with the correct height on the gear leg fairing. In other words, you need a point on the leading edge of the gear leg fairing that is the same vertical and horizontal (inboard/outboard) point as a second point on the step. The easiest way to do this is to use a laser level or a string line with a bubble level. Using the step as a reference, move the line up/down the gear leg fairing until the two points are level. Now you have identified the height on the gear leg (which matches the height on the step) and the inboard/outboard point on the gear leg fairing. Now all you need to do is use a laser level or other method to find the inboard/outboard point on the step that is the same distance out as the point on the gear leg. In other words,

Laser mark on leading edge of gear leg fairing and laser mark on the step are both the same height from the ground and parallel to the aircraft centerline. This only works at one specific lateral distance on the step -- for example, if you go inwards on the step then the gear leg point will be higher than the step.

Page 48-16

• See this FB thread on fitting the nose wheel fairing.

Page 48-17

• Step 2: Screw 3/8-24 x 1 3/4 is an RV-10 problem point. The steel bolt in the aluminum fork may eventually strip the thread and come loose. Consider evaluating measures to prevent this. See also
  • this FB thread
  • this VAF thread
  • this Youtube
  • this FB thread
  • this FB thread
• Step 3: It can be tricky to make sure the front wheel pant is straight for all directions. Consider using a laser level to make sure a laser line that follows the centerline of the belly of the aircraft also lines up with the rear of the front wheel fairing and the nose gear leg and the center of the tire.

Here you can see that the laser line is parallel to the aircraft centerline (reference on ground) but the front wheel pant is rolled slightly to the right and the aft end is also slightly to the right (laser line is centered on the aft end of the wheel pant but is NOT centered on the tire and the gear leg).