Sunday, August 6, 2023

Wing Inspection Covers, Tail Wheel Inspection Cover and Slat Bumpers

I spent the last several days fitting and fabricating the wing inspection covers. There are twelve of them (2 front strut covers, 2 rear strut covers, 2 front jury strut covers, 2 rear jury strut covers, and 4 flap covers). Although basic covers are supplied with the kit, each has to be formed and custom fitted. The factory specifies sheet metal screws to fasten the covers to the wing. I used lock plates and machine screws instead. Actually the lock plates were installed a LONG time ago before I covered the wing. As you can see in the pics below there is a lot of work to making them fit properly, and drilling them for the screws. Then there is filing, sanding and eventually powder coating. Anyway, they are done except for the powder coat.

Left front jury strut after shaping, sanding.
Right inboard flap cover after forming to follow the contour of the wing. There is an extra hole I drilled by mistake. I'll fill it before powder coating.
Flap cover
Front cover with the tie down ring.
Right front strut cover with tie down ring,
Jury strut cover.
Jury strut cover.
Left front strut cover.
Right rear jury strut cover.
Right rear jury strut cover.
Right rear main strut cover.
Flap cover.
Flap cover.
Left rear jury strut cover.

Next, I installed the tail wheel inspection cover. It's located on the bottom of the fuselage between the tail shock and the front attachment of the tail wheel. It's the black cover plate in the pics.

The final task for today was to install the slat bumpers. The factory supplies the bumper material with the kit but it is white. I did not want white, I wanted black. It took me a while to locate a suitable substitute in black. I found it a McMaster-Carr. After cleaning the slats, I installed the bumpers on each of the 4 slats. The lighting was not great for the photos, but you get the idea. Actually, it's what I wanted, hard to see. They blend in nicely.