Week 262 - Gear leg fairings, Brakes, Tailplanes, Wings & Placards

Hours to date: 2709.75

A busy week and a half since I last posted.

Slowly making my way through all the jobs left to do before heading out to the airfield for final assembly and inspections.

Quite a few photos to post so I will tell most of the story with them and their captions.

Barring some kind of unforeseen drama the Twister should be making it's way to Little Gransden in about a weeks time. 

Finally fitting the tailwheel bearing guard I made. Using RTV on the bottom to seal up the gap and keep it in place.

Should stop all manner of crap from getting over the bearing.

In place. Imagine the dirt and water that would get on that bearing without this guard in place.

Gear leg fairing.

PTFE tape applied to the bits that will rub on the fuselage base.

Oil cooler will still see fresh air despite the gear leg fairing in the way a wee bit.

Cowl flap open. This thing better work!

Lifting up the wheels one at a time. These have to come off to fit the gear leg fairings up the leg.

Time to do the brakes.

Access to the reservoir is very limited so I made up this contraption to intravenously feed the life blood (fluid) to the reservoir.

Bleeding one wheel at a time.

There were some leaks from the parking brake mechanism after activating it for the first time - these fittings have to be done up REALLY tight. All good now.

Got the tailplanes and rudder fitted. No big dramas here. PTFE tape on the rudder where it rubs.

Time to work on the wings.

Inside the wing, the aileron pushrod assembly. Just a trial fitting here before Nylocs.

Pushrod was rubbing on the exit hole a tiny bit so had to get out the Dremel for a bit.

Both wings on and you can see the ailerons are both drooping with the stick centered. This is with all push rod end fittings screwed right the way in. I adjusted the ailerons using the tie rod end (the only one on the outside) to get both ailerons lining up with the flaps when the stick was centered.

Placards all in place.

Flaps working nicely.