40A - Gear & Engine Mount (nose gear & wheel); 46A - Leg & Wheel Fairings (intersection and nose gear fairings); 43 - Engine Installation (mounted engine to fuselage!)

The engine has been mounted to the fuselage!  All other crap I did the past two weeks was incidental to this major milestone - and thanks to Ken B., the install went quite smoothly.  Prior to that, I had received the nose gear leg and installed the nose gear and wheel, and did a bunch of composite work.  I'm really not a fan of fiberglass - almost a month of working on the 13 fairings for the wheels/legs and I'm still not quite finished. But, with the engine on, I'll be moving on to engine-related tasks for a while.  Here is what was accomplished during the past two weeks:

- installed nose gear leg and link assembly

- installed axle flange and nose fork, torqued the -24 nut until ~30lb of force felt per pulling with a fish scale (a little more than 26lb required, since will loosen over time); installed nose wheel

- removed intersection fairings and sanded/trimmed; floxed a lug to encase nut that attaches the training edge of each upper intersection fairing

- removed tape and excess flox from nut lugs; #27 drilled and #40 countersunk upper intersection fairings (attached to fuselage); removed main wheel fairings, and reattached halves with screws; drilled and deburred holes for nutplates in fairings; countersunk holes for nutplates

- figured out how to get fuselage into level flying position whilst having the nosewheel barely touching the ground; drew longitudinal center line on garage floor; marked standoff locations; aligned nose wheel fairing

- Cut slot in nose wheel fairing; aligned fairing in pitch; drilled bracket holes (magnet technique) and standoff pilot hole; tapped bracket holes; drilled standoff holes to just under 1” wide (will finish later, after - I received the proper screws to hold standoffs - was using shorter screws with washers for the initial fits); floxed brackets to nose wheel fairing rear

- Final drilled nose wheel fairing to brackets; installed nutplates to brackets; primed brackets; attached brackets to wheel fairing and attached to nose wheel; final fit of fairing (needed trimming to clear nose gear leg through the wheel’s range of motion)

- trimmed and aligned nose gear leg fairing; drilled nose gear leg fairing and hinge

- deburred, countersunk and riveted hinge halves to nose gear leg fairing; started initial fit of fairing (trimming, fitting, trimming again…)

- drilled #19 holes in fairing to attach to nose gear leg; attached nutplates to nose gear leg; final-trimmed fairing

- installed last oil fitting; cleaned and prepped workshop to install engine; installed engine onto dynafocal mount (w/ Ken B.!)

Floxed intersection fairings, installed on fuselage and wheel pants, and then removed them to trim:

46A - Leg & Wheel Fairings (main and nose wheel fairings, intersection fairings, leg fairings)

Since I was still waiting for the nose gear, I begrudgingly trudged through 12 of the 13 fiberglass pieces that comprise the leg and wheel fairings.  Lots of progress on most of these parts ... and a very dusty workshop from sanding and sanding and sanding fiberglass.  Be resigned to have dust everywhere for a while. Specifically, I completed the following during the past ~12 days:

- finished fitting right gear fairings to each other; #40 match-drilled; cutout gear leg clearance hole; ensured all could be installed on right wheel/gear; floxed all 4 brackets to gear fairings and loosely attached with screws (did this process off the plane, since there was no way to verify proper seating of bracket if on plane)

- cleaned up floxed brackets; drilled, countersunk and riveted nutplated to aft fairings; drilled #27 and countersunk holes in forward fairings; both main wheel fairings are ready to mount onto plane

trimmed nose fairing halves; marked and drilled holes #40 into nose fairings; fabricated “v block”

- leveled nose wheel fairing and marked;  fabricated spacer and deburred bracket and located nutplates on bracket; lots of contemplation about this fairing

- checked main gear fairings for twist; secured trailing edges; modified hinge halves; drilled, clecoed and deburred hinges into one of the main gear fairings

- countersunk and riveted hinges to first main gear fairing; bent hinge pin and drilled hole for safety wire; completed all tasks for the 2nd main gear fairing

- worked on all 4 intersection fairings for the main gear (lots of sanding)

- attached main gear fairings with screws (they fit!); attached leg fairings and intersection fairings (on/off to prepare for drilling); drilled right intersection fairings

- drilled left intersection fairings; sanded all 4 intersection fairings (80grit); floxed two upper intersection fairings and installed loosely with #6 screws; received and opened crate with nose gear leg

- floxed and clecoed lower intersection fairings to main wheel fairings

The four main gear fairing halves, at some intermediate stage of completion:

45 - Cowling (trimmed); 43 - Engine Installation (random stuff); 38 - Canopy & Window (latch system); 40A - Gear & Engine Mount (installed legs, wheels, brakes); 46A - Leg & Wheel Fairings (main gear nearly complete)

Another couple weeks of searching for items to complete, while I wait for Van's to deliver backordered items (COVID-delays, so understandable). Fortunately, they sent me the main gear legs and the latch torque tube, so I could get another week of work done toward installing the engine.  BUT, I still need the nose gear and link before installing the engine ... oh well, this forces me to continue picking at the fiberglass bits. Here are the details:

- clamped cowl halves together and started fine-trimming the spinner hole and ducts; lots of small areas to sand to get all four areas to fit nicely

- finished fine-trimming of spinner hole and air ducts; drilled #40 holes to cleco (for now) the area around the spinner; cleaned up for next project (dust everywhere!)

- removed fuel hose that goes from fuel servo to fuel spider to take measurements and pictures for Aircraft Specialty - they will fabricate an integral firesleeved hose for me, and hopefully include in their catalog for other RV-14A builders!  

- received backordered powdercoated torque tube from Van’s; installed canopy latch system; tested latch action inside and out - works just fine!  

- installed main gear legs; attached main gear leg axles (wife helped); checked alignment of axles (toe); installed main wheel and tire assemblies

- installed brakes and brake lines from fuselage to calipers (Aircraft Specialty!)

- trimmed and deburred oil door and oil door hinge

- prepped main gear fairings; fit and trimmed main gear fairings so the halves mate as precisely as possible

- drilled #30 main gear fairings for brackets and found that one aft fairing was mis-dimpled at factory; repaired drill holes in aft fairing using epoxy-flox; drilled left fairing and cut gear leg clearance hole; attached nutplates to fairing brackets; installed one bracket temp. on left gear/wheel

- attached other 3 brackets (temp) to gear/wheels; modified left wheel fairing halves to have 5/8” clearance for tire

- finished fitting right gear fairings to each other; #40 match-drilled; cutout gear leg clearance hole; ensured all could be installed on right wheel/gear; floxed all 4 brackets to gear fairings and loosely attached with screws (did this process off the plane, since there was no way to verify proper seating of bracket if on plane)

Finished trimming and fitting the forward parts of the top and bottom cowls - the two halves fit well together, so I drilled the requisite #40 hole: