Nose Gear Wheel Fairing

0

Submitted by Don Jessup, Wellsboro PA, Glasair Super II FT

When you are fitting the nose wheel fairing the manual suggests a 7/8″ space above the wheel fairing pivot plane. I would also suggest you tape a 1/2″ spacer on top of your tire and 3/8″ spacers on the side of your tire where the fairing meets the tire. This will help you center the fairing around the tire and meet some minimum clearance requirements. You may have to enlarge the opening slightly so it will close. The final fitting asks for a 1/2″ clearance all around the tire. This can be a difficult task unless you get it level and centered on the tire. After I put the nutplate inside the nose gear fork assembly I could not get the tire back in. I used two 12″ pieces of angle iron clamped to the side of the fork and then used a large C-clamp in front of the fork assembly to enlarge the opening enough to get the wheel back in.

Advertisement

It only required about an 1/4″ but it wouldn’t go in without spreading the fork. I would also suggest the the strut fairing hinge should be about 1″ shorter and that you may end up putting the hinge pin in from the top. I wouldn’t put the safety wire clip on until after I fitted the fairing to the strut.

Advertisement
Previous articleStopping Cabin Air Outflow
Next articleStarting the Engine Safely
Omar Filipovic
Omar Filipovic is president of the Glasair Aircraft Owners Association as well as the chief tinkerer and content editor for this website. He is also the web editor for Kitplanes Magazine. Omar is building a GlaStar in Portland, Oregon.