Wing Tips, Wheel Pants and Window Transitions

Craig has been busy at work this last week. He has been fitting the wing tip lenses and matching up contours and evening out gaps between the tip and lens. He also filled in the inside rear of the tip near the aileron area so it’s not an open area where the supporting rib shows through.

He also finished up evening out the gaps and surface of the wheel pants. So he instructed me on how to locate the hidden screws and how to remove them. I then cleaned up the two parts of the fairings and re-countersunk the screw holes for the paint process. For the nose wheel we decided to get a couple of hole caps for the towbar tug holes that can be painted. These will only be installed when at a show where we want to clean up the surface area and will otherwise be removed for everyday flight so the towbar can still be used.

On the main wheel pants he finished the contour work to transition from the pant to the intersection fairing. This way when the fairing is installed it looks flush with the side of the pant as it will sit in a small recess. For the mains we decided to use an access door to allow access to the wheels for inspection/filling rather than the small 1″ hole there now. So I laid 3 layers of glass on the inside and will cut a larger hole and make some flanges and use nutplates so the door can be removable.

Craig also had Gil working on some glass projects. One was the exterior reinforcement of the lower rudder fairing. For some reason these are laid up with very little support on the outside of the fairing. If you squeezed on it at all, it would crack up the middle. So Gil laid down some glass to strengthen the seam.

Gil also continued his work this week and laid up 2 layers of glass over the side window transitions. He also started sanding down the transition on the right rear window. Today he started the sanding in preparation for glass the front windshield as well.