Main wheel fairings almost done
Went back down to the hangar in the afternoon. Weather wasn’t great for flying (again), so I worked on the wheel fairings some more. The layups from yesterday turned out great.
I re-rigged plumb bobs and lines to make sure the wheel fairings were straight and then drilled the inboard holes out to #19. I then went through several iterations on each to get the wheel opening just right. I made sure I had a finger’s width all the way around the tire. I also countersunk the fiberglass for rivets and screws and installed the outboard brackets to the fairings.
Last step is to drill and install nut plates on the inboard brackets and these things will finally be done. I’m hoping to fly once without and once with the fairings and get some accurate numbers on the speed increase. Then I’ll install the leg fairings and fly again. I can also keep an eye on the yaw trim and make sure I haven’t introduced any problems there.
Then I just have to work on the nose wheel fairings and the intersection fairings. There’s always more to do…