Brief Description: Aligning the Left Wheel Pant to the Fuselage
Today, the remainder of the initial opening in the wheel pant for the wheel was finished, and the opening on the inboard side for the gear leg was marked and cut. This allowed the pant to be slipped into place and the serious alignment to begin.
After the wheel pant is roughly in position and the two halves clecoed together, the primary reference points are the intersections of the centerlines at the forward tip, and the center of the rear vertical fin. These points are used to align the pant in the yaw axis by setting the distance of the points at the fore and aft ends equidistant from the reference lines previously marked on the floor. Squares aligned with both points simultaneously are used to determine the distances.
Similarly, the pitch is adjusted by setting the fore and aft points equidistant from the floor surface.
With the wheel pant secured in this position, the roll axis is adjusted by canting the centerline of the aft vertical fin to match the previously measured angle of the wheel, about 8-degrees in this case. The opening in the bottom of the pant had to be incrementally opened to allow these adjustments. A relatively snug fit of the openings to the tire and gear leg helps to hold the pant in position through this process.
With the pant supported in this position, a #18 hole was drilled through the inboard side of the wheel pant, aligned with the forward of the two holes in the aft end of the mounting bracket. A 5/32” cleco was installed and the position of the wheel pant rechecked to be sure nothing moved.
