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Peters Web Site
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Date: 2-25-2018
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Number of Hours: 4.00
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Manual Reference: 9225501-LOG-05.037
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Brief Description: 3: Bolting in the Right Landing Gear Weldment
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Okay, so next up the instructions simply say "bolt in the landing gear weldments to the main spar and fuselage".
That's it. Sounds simple. Off we go then.........
Four hours later, with skun knuckles, butchered tools, and about a thousand well-chosen "colourful" words of self-encouragement, I got one done.
Holy cow, this was difficult. The large structural weldment was in and out about 5 times as I got bolt holes aligned, and new holes drilled where they weren't already done. The bolts are all a very tight fit and before drilling any of the new holes I had to make sure all the pre-drilled holes had bolts inserted and that they were all done up tight. That then meant they all had to be undone and removed as I took the weldment out again to clean up the newly drilled holes. Many needed a pin punch or pliers to get out, such is the fit.
And of course many of the bolts are very difficult to get to. Two in particular gave me some serious concerns. They sit at the bottom of the main spar with nuts in between the two spar sections. There's no room to get my hands down inside, and I have no tools long enough to reach. Picture two shows the extension spanner I ended up making.
I think I dropped a washer or nut down into the spar centre section about a million times. I came to realise that no difficult nut will ever get started without using my words. Once I've used enough then it seems to work. How many words, let's just say some bolts were very, very difficult!
I don't look forward to doing this all again on the left side. Seriously thinking about how I might land with just one main wheel. Scary part is that nobody says this is one of the hard parts of their build.
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Match drilling the side frame mounting holes, using the pre-drilled holes in the skin as a guide
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My extension spanner, for getting to the nuts down at the inside bottom of the main spar
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That's one landing gear weldment done
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