I didn’t get much time in on the weekend so my progress is a little slow. I decided to work on the landing gear doors and get the bottom of the nose finished off. I finished drawing the nose gear doors in Solidworks. I knew that I would be installing doors on my long-ez so it was one more area that I designed and molded into the one piece lower nose.
I am going to follow what Wayne Hicks has done on his cozy. I “borrowed” this pic from his web page to show how I will attach part of my gear doors. I believe he makes a valid point so you can read about it on his page. In short, the landing gear flexes and you have to compensate for it.
I drew some molds to be able to layup the doors. The doors are curved in both directions so I wanted to capture that shape without having to do it with micro after the fact. Also, My tire comes close to the bottom mold line of the fuse so I wanted to keep as much clearance as possible.
I am also going to machine a new NG 5 that will match the doors and the outside contour of the nose. I will make it from aluminum and replace the existing one that I have.
Here are the gear doors vacuum bagged on the gear door molds. It might seem like overkill but I cut these molds in 36 min plus set up time. So in less than an hour I have molds that will give me the shape that I want. That is the reason I spent the time drawing out the entire plane. Having that data makes it quick to create accurate parts that I need.
All builders get a little excited when we see these boxes arrive. I’ve been trying to get ahead on the materials that I will need so when I get in a building grove there is nothing to slow me down 🙂
Canadian long-ez 