I decided to work on something different for a couple of days. I think I had an urge to have something that moves so decided to do some work on the landing brake. The landing brake on my long-ez was already built and it was done very well. The fit is probably as close as you can get it. When I purchased my long-ez it came with an actuator kit that had the actuator, wiring and plans. I am not sure who’s kit it was but I followed the directions on installation.
I maneuvered the fuselage into a more ergonomic position for doing the layups.
My fuselage was already set up for the mechanical system. I decided to remove the support, however, everything that was already done is shifted slightly to the right. I don’t think its a big deal as the kit is intended as a mod to existing aircraft.
I used a die grinder to grind through the glass that was holding the support in place.
After a couple light taps with a hammer and it was free.
I sanded off all the remaining glass and prepped the area for glassing. I retracted the actuator fully closed and did a test fit to find out where the support pad was going and laid out its location.
I marked out the size of glass I would require and wet the layers out between some bagging film.
I wanted to reinforce the seat back to the floor. The directions also said to sandwich the 18 lb foam between four layers of glass so I used continuous layers of glass to do both. I also used flox in the joint between the seat back and the floor to create more of a radius.
I cut and shaped the 18 lb core to a 5″ x 6″ pad.
I used some of the left over flox around the core.
I put on the remainder glass over the core, applied peel ply and worked out any remaining air.
After the layup had cured I drilled the four 0.25 holes for the mounting bolts through the seat back.
I installed the actuator and temporarily wired it to my 12 volt power supply. I tested the movement and fine tuned the length of the actuator to get it to pull the brake up snug.
The plans call for 60 degrees when the brake is deployed. I think I can live with this 🙂
The directions call for a backing plate on the front side of the pilots seat. I think its a little overkill since most load will be in compression. However, I know it will make the attach area stronger so in it goes. I did a rubbing of the exit of the holes on the front side of the pilot seat and center punched their location onto some 0.125 thick aluminum.
I cut the rectangle out of the aluminum plate, drilled the holes to full size and beveled the edges. It kinda looks like a light switch cover 🙂
I test fit the plate to make sure I got my holes in the correct location.
All the aluminum bits were etched and alodined.
I scuffed all the mating surfaces for the aluminum parts as I will be bonding them on. I will use structural adhesive again just as I did on my elevators.
I applied the adhesive to both sides that are going to be bonded. I was a little heavy on my applications of the adhesive but the excess will squeeze out. It is better to have too much and have it squeeze out then have too little.
Here you can see the excess adhesive working itself out. I wait a little bit then clean off all the excess adhesive.
The mounting brackets on the brake door are installed in the same manor.
All the excess adhesive is cleaned up. I will be replacing the hardware on the door to use dimple washers and countersunk screws. You can also see how the brackets are shifted to one side.
And here is the actuator reinstalled. I will leave the brake off until I change the hardware then final install it.
Canadian long-ez 