September 17, 2006

I didn’t spend too much time at the hangar today, mainly because I had surgery on Friday afternoon - a bone graft in my sinuses for a tooth implant. I wasn’t feeling up to much really. I did get some good things done though.

I mounted the map lights in the plane. This worked out really nice. They’re neat little things.

Here’s one mounted to the Pilot’s side.

… And the Passenger side, a shot from underneath to show the mounting. You can loosen the thumb wheel and move the lamps where you need them too which is nice.

Next, I spent a bunch of time lifting the plane up and sorting out the wheel pant fairing brackets and the wheel nuts. I purchased a foot of heavy duty 7/8" pipe from Spruce to use as a jacking aid. I also went and got the modified wheelnuts from Avery to aid jacking this thing up. The whole contraption worked pretty good I have to say.

So, I lifted it up, figured out the fairing brackets, drilled all the holes in the fairing brackets ready to take the fairings, and reassembled the whole kaboodle. I borrowed (stole) some high temp bearing grease from Rick our local A & P so I could pack the wheel bearings good. Then, I mounted them and drilled the holes in the spindles for the cotter pins. Here’s one all fitted and ready for flight!

An aid to drilling these holes for the cotter pin is to use a 12" #30 bit, put tape on the wheel to protect it from the bit rubbing, and let air out of the tyre so it’s not in the way. Then drill the hole from each side of the nut. Take it all off, drill all the way through to make sure the hole is true, clean up the threads and reassemble it all. Worked out lovely.

Once I’d got both sides done, I re-attached the caliper and safety wired the two bolts for the outer pad.

The wheels and brakes are now ready for flight!