« Archives on September 20, 2010

Wheels!

2 hours.

Since Dave grew up racing go karts back in SA, it was only common sense that I ask him for some help putting the wheels and tires together. Airplane wheels are a lot like the old-style kart wheels. We made a decent mess with the tire talc, but we got the tubes in and the wheel/brake rotor assemblies back together and torqued. I put some air in them, and left them outside all night, and will check them for leakage later, but I suspect they’ll be fine.

After Dave took off, I started in on the landing gear, just to figure out the brake caliper assembly. The plans are pretty sparse about the actual caliper, which comes as part of the kit from Parker containing wheels and brake calipers. So I’m still puzzling out how to bolt the calipers to the gear legs. I think I got it, but there’s really no drawing showing how to integrate the caliper, gear leg, and fairing bracket. I need to dig into the plans some more, this is kind of important.