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Debo Cox - Zodiac 601 XL
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Date:  12-18-2008
Number of Hours:  3.00
Manual Reference:  6B
Brief Description:  Landing Gear Attachments Bolted On

Every once in a while my mind starts thinking airplane things while I'm trying to sleep, and I find myself mentally building an airplane. That was the case last night when I had a bout of aviation-related insomnia. About 1:30AM I started thinking about the gear attachments that were on my list to do, so I finally just got up and worked on them. I must say, these are what I consider to be the trickiest part of the fuselage (so far). Early on, I misdrilled a couple of gussets by not fastening the gear attachment in the right place. I wanted these holes to fit tightly, so I re-made the parts and made sure I had things right before drilling again - which brings me to Cox's Rule of Homebuilding #57: Make sure it's where it's gonna live before you drill it in place! Sounds easy, but it's not always that simple. After fiddling with these for HOURS, I finally got them in the right place. Word of warning - Make sure your bolt heads and nuts have room to operate. Don't drill them too close to the inside radius of a piece of angle, and make sure bolts on opposing flanges of a piece of angle aren't trying to occupy the same space. I think it was Sir Issac Newton who said, and I'm paraphrasing, "Ain't gonna happen." You might notice that on the passenger side front (right) I wallowed out the holes on the bottom two bolts, so I went from AN3 bolts to AN4 bolts. No problem. It's acceptible to use a larger fastener, just not a smaller one. I also put the nuts on the outside of the fuselage for two reasons. Easier inspection, and easier to get to with a torque wrench. Unless you've got some kind of extendo-universal-joint torque wrench, I don't see how you'd get to these after riveting like I did. For the most part, this will be covered by the wing so it won't matter, but I'll be able to inspect and service them easier.
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Passenger side gear attachment

Passenger side gear attachment

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Pilot's side (still missing 2 bolts)

Pilot's side (still missing 2 bolts)

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The canopy will rest on this edge

The canopy will rest on this edge

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