REFLECTOR: nose gear air seal

[Chuck Jensen]

Some time ago, someone posted that they put a boot on the retract nose gear leg and anchored it to the slot opening that the nose gear strut moves through.  Apparently quite effective.
 
I wonder if, even with John's silicone trick, the nose gear doors can ever be sealed tight enough, consistently enough, to reduce air intrusion into the nose area, by a meaningful amount.  
 
I cut down the air intrusion from the nose gear opening in the front bulkhead that transited into the cabin through the opening in the top of the keel by using a few pieces of soft foam stuffed in opening around the wires and elevator push tube.  Cheap and the friction on the tube is so small that's it imperceptible.  
 
Where the elevator tubes penetrate the side of the hull, I took the plastic shower rod protectors that snap over a show curtain rod, cut off a 1" piece which snaps over the aileron tube and slide it between the tube and the fuselage sidewall.  The gap between the plastic tube protector can then be caulked shut but the elevator tube will still move inside the plastic sheath with near zero friction.  This only works with the offset aileron tubes that rotate around the the tube axis and doesn't move laterally.

Chuck Jensen 

-----Original Message-----
From: reflector-bounces at tvbf.org [mailto:reflector-bounces at tvbf.org]On Behalf Of John Dibble
Sent: Monday, November 24, 2008 1:21 PM
To: Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list
Subject: Re: REFLECTOR: nose gear air seal



Seal with silicone.  You can use silicone on the center joint between the two doors and then cut them apart with a utility knife.  For all other areas you need to protect one surface with saran wrap so you don't seal your doors shut. 

John 


mike.roberts at kennametal.com wrote: 



Hello everyone... 

I have an XLRG and get a lot of cold air (winter time) that comes up through the nose gear opening. The nose gear doors don't form a good seal and the opening near the gear's pivot axle is where all of the air comes from. I was wondering if any of you have come up with a solution to seal this area or at least reduce the air flow. 


Mike W Roberts 
Director of Sales, Americas 
Metalworking Solutions & Services Group 
Kennametal Inc. 
1662 MacMillan Park Drive 
Fort Mill, SC 29707 
Office 803-578-4590 
Cell 843-597-2293 
email: mike.roberts at kennametal.com 


Imperfect action is better than perfect inaction....DO IT NOW... 
  
  



  _____  

_______________________________________________

To change your email address, visit  http://www.tvbf.org/mailman/listinfo/reflector



Visit the gallery!  www.tvbf.org/gallery

user:pw = tvbf:jamaicangoose

Check new archives: www.tvbf.org/pipermail

Check old archives:  http://www.tvbf.org/archives/velocity/maillist.html


  _____  


Internal Virus Database is out of date.

Checked by AVG -  http://www.avg.com 

Version: 8.0.175 / Virus Database: 270.8.5/1755 - Release Date: 10/29/2008 5:27 PM



-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.tvbf.org/mailman/private/reflector/attachments/20081124/a042f603/attachment-0001.htm