REFLECTOR: Gear Leg Woes

[Scott Derrick]

Mike,

The leg cores are pretty cheap, and both fit very well. There were some 
very minor differences but as they are all made in the same mold they 
should be pretty close.

I had no problems fitting my new legs to the gear retract brackets, axles, 
etc.  And the wheels went up into the wells like they were the 
originals.  I agree there is not any wiggle room where the gear fits into 
the wing wells.  The new cores were 1/2 inch shorter in side where they 
attach the the retract mechanism.  The change didn't effect anything that I 
could see,  150 hours later.

I used 12 layers per the manual. That was over a year ago.

Though now that I'm installing a big engine I'm going to add 4 more to 
handle the greater weight.

Scott

At 12:44 PM 10/2/2004, you wrote:
>Scott:
>
>Other questions from your experience:
>
>In the eventuality I have to replace the gear leg, are
>the new ones from the factory true enough so they'll
>fit reliably into my wheel and leg wells.  I built
>everything according to plans as best I could and
>those spaces are pretty tight.
>
>Also, in rebuilding your legs, is the guidance still
>for 12 layers of glass per leg?
>
>Thanks again,
>
>Mike
>
>
>--- Scott Derrick <scott at tnstaafl.net> wrote:
>
> > MIke,
> >
> > I'm sure every situation is somewhat different.  I
> > had the same problem on
> > my std rg.  The leg was first damaged by the
> > original owner in a bad
> > landing that ended up leaving the runway. It was
> > repaired at the factory.
> >
> > I had a very bad landing, long story, and had made
> > repairs.
> >
> > Per a talk with the factory, using a grinder I
> > removed all the torsional
> > wraps effected down to the core. Blending the
> > removal to allow a 1/2 inch
> > for each layer. Replaced the wraps. I flew with the
> > repaired leg for about
> > 30 hours and it came undone again.  Very scary
> > landing that was actually a
> > greaser that turned into a major vibration as the
> > gear was waggin back and
> > forth because it had become so loose.
> >
> > I ended up buying new cores and making new legs... I
> > think the damage from
> > two seperate incidents was just to much and the
> > cores were effected.
> >
> > Scott
> >
> >
> >
> > > All:
> > >
> > > After ~85 hours I noticed evidence of delamination
> > of
> > > layups on my left main gear leg (Std Elite RG).
> > > Perhaps those 'crowd-pleasing' (read that 'damned
> > > hard') landings I made early-on are back to haunt
> > me.
> > > I took the gear off and am scraping paint to
> > > understand the full extent of the problem.
> > >
> > > The factory is kinda busy right now and I can't
> > get in
> > > touch w/ them so maybe someone out there has had
> > the
> > > same problem and might know what strategy has
> > worked
> > > in the past.
> > >
> > > Can the gear leg typically be fixed?  (I obviously
> > > hope so!)
> > >
> > > Should I remove (I assume 'grind away'!) any parts
> > of
> > > bad layups?  Any ideas on the best way to do that?
> > > Should I start grinding away at the delaminated
> > > portion and stop when I feel I'm into a solidly
> > > adhered region?
> > >
> > > I built each leg to plans with a total of 12
> > layers of
> > > UNI/leg; I've heard of others going to 16 layers;
> > is
> > > that the consensus or factory guidance?
> > >
> > > Thanks for any experiences out there.
> > >
> > > Mike Deeter
> > > N2011P Std Elite RG
> > >
> > >
> > > =====
> > > *******************************************
> > > Mike Deeter
> > > N2011 Test Pilot
> > > iguanamagic at yahoo.com
> > > http://iguanamagic.siegesmund.org
> > > *******************************************
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>
>=====
>*******************************************
>Mike Deeter
>N2011 Test Pilot
>iguanamagic at yahoo.com
>http://iguanamagic.siegesmund.org
>*******************************************
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