wheel pants

[N210GW]

Could anyone provide me with information on the best method of installation of lightspeed wheel pants. I have understand that some operators attach to the outboard axle and some only attach to the gear strut. Links to instalation drawings would be welcome.

[mwilli7119]

I need the same thing. Thanks for asking.

[EZPILOT742X]

Hello, I just finished installing LSE wheelpants on my Berk-EZ. I did things a little differently. First I figured out where holes and cuts need to be made and did that slowly and carefuly. Then I cleco'd the two wheelpant halves together and got them aligned and on the strut where I wanted them in relation to the wheel. I used super glue, bondo, blocks, whatever I had to hold them in place and then I mold released most of the wheelpant with packing tape. I cut laid up 6 plies of 8"x12" BID over the wheel pant making a flange that wraps from the top to the strut-side of the pant. Cut slits in the BID rectangles to have them wrap nicely around the strut, overlapping them onto the strut an inch or so. After that I laid 3-ply tapering bid tapes from my still-wet flange onto the top and bottom of the strut. Fill it and let it cure, then sand it out and clean it up. Next match drill the flange/pant for clecos and then take everhthing apart. I removed the pant and mold released the new flange now, put the wheelpant back in place, and filled it to the flange with micro and a flox corner. Clean and sand again then remove and install nutplates on the wheelpant, with flush screws going through the flange. Vans Aircraft sells an axel nut that is tapped #10-32. One of those on each axel with an AN-525 screw holding the pant onto the axel/nut worked very well. I can take some pictures of the finished product and email them to you, but unfortunately I got too into the building and installation and don't have much to show during the process. Just one way of getting it done...

Chris Randall
Berk-EZ N742X
KWHP, CA

[Kilo42]

I just purchased a set of wheel pants that were said to be made from the CSA molds.  Does anyone have installation intructions for these?

Thanks

Kilo42

[Drew]

Sorry,
Don't have the instructions for the CSA pants anymore.  Terry Shubert or "Beagle" Orr may have copies.  I believe that it was Terry who built the CSA molds.

Anyway---in words---you need to build 2 little "BBQ spits".  There are many ways to build it---but in the end, you need a structure that you can nail the front and back end of the wheel pant to.  This holds the wheel pant in the proper location (roll, pitch, yaw, and height).  You can do this with the nose gear up or down---I did it up to make sure the pants would not rip off when I put the nose down.

You can buy the axel nut from spruce that has a fitting in it---or you can make your own (a piece of steel shaped like ] welded to the axel nut along with a nut plate in it.

You need to build a bracket for the inside of the gear leg.  This fits on the four bolts that hold the axel on.  You can really build that bracket in just about any manner that you want.  I made my bracket so that it made a "jog" to the inside and then went straight back.  Bolt that bracket on the gear leg.  Screw the wheelpant halves together and put on the leg.  Use the "spit" to get the right pitch angle.  Shine a bright light on the outside of the wheelpant so you can see where the bracket is and mark 2 location on the back half of the wheelpant where you want the screws to penetrate---and maintain that same pitch angle.  Take off the pants, drill the holes, put them back on the spit and use a marker to mark the bracket.  Take off the pants and the bracket.  Drill holes in the bracket and put in nut plates.  Get the right kind of screw that will fit in the nutplate of the axel nut and cut the head off---sharpen it to a good point.  Screw it into the axel nut and put on the axel nut.  Fasten the pants onto the bracket and put the spit back on.  Pitch was the easy angle.  Now you need to get roll and yaw.  The fitting on the axel nut gives you roll and yaw.  Once you get the angles right, use a hammer to gently hit the wheelpant where the axel is (remember that it has a screw in it with a sharp point---this will mark the location for where the screw goes in.

Make sure you have ample plys of glass where all the screws go in.  Make a fairing for the top of the pant.

BTW, there is nothing wrong with doing it Chris's way either.  The thing that is cool with Chris's way is that the wheel pant looks like it is part of the leg as opposed to an attachment.

[EZPILOT742X]

Thanks for that post Drew. Another good way to install pants. I think you can apply either methed, draw points from both, and even throw in some of your own good ideas to accomplish a good installation.  The "spit" idea is great.. I wish I would have thought of that. I tried to concoct somthing similar but it just wasn't going right and I wanted to move on with getting the pants on so I crudly jigged mine in place and tacked them on the strut. I think I ended up with them pretty well aligned. The final result does look pretty clean and blends right in with the strut. I say use whatever way you feel comfortable with. You can lay up glass, make brackets out of sheet metal, whatever you feel comfortable with. There's lots of different ways to make good airplanes. Personally I really enjoy sharing ideas. It's probably more fun to see what someone else has done different, then to get some one to do things the way you did. Happy Building guys! Look for Berk-EZ N742X to start showing up later next year :-)