Intersection Fairings

The Fairing Fun continues. This is where things get a little tricky. You need to make the leg fairings parallel to the airplane while in flight. So you use a string wrapped around the fairing and attached to the step. You then make the string parallel to the aircraft on both the pitch and roll axis. Then you center the trailing edge of the leg fairing between the strings. Done! I'll admit it took a little head scratching at first, but nothing I couldn't figure out...eventually.

Dates and Times
Sun 13th -3.5hrs- Started Intersection Fairings
Mon 14th -1.25hrs- Glued tabs onto fairings with epoxy
Tues 15th -1.0hrs- Re-glued tabs onto fairings with Lord Adhesive
Wed 16th -0.75hrs- Sanded and test fitted fairing
Fri 18th -2.25hrs- Body work on fairings
Sat 19th -4.0hrs- Countersinking, sanding fairings, filling holes
Sun 20th -1.0hr- Final sanding and finished the fairings.

Total Time on Landing Gear Fairings

43.5hrs

Here is a picture of the strings lined up for positioning the leg fairing. (Note the engine sitting in the back ground!)

Once I had everything positioned correctly and clecoed in place I bisected the intersection fairing. This doesn't follow the plans. Instead I'm going to be bonding the intersection fairings to the wheel fairings. This not only looks a little better but it should make maintenance a little easier.

Here are the tabs I made. I first tried to epoxy them in place and they popped right back off. Lord Adhesive, on the other hand, worked great!

This is how the tabs will work. The small tab tucks under the back fairing skin and holds it down flush. The large tab on back fairing rests under the front fairing to prevent any wind catching under the fairing and separating it from the aircraft during flight.

I got the whole area all smoothed out and finished up. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of the whole plane with the fairings on.....I know, I'm disappointed too.