I've made a big hole in the firewall and am trying to get my landing gear frame
(LG01/3) aligned with the firewall according to the manual page 21M-2. That
calls
for 3 tubes (top horizontal and 2 vertical side ones) to be between 1mm &
3mm from the vertical face of the firewall.
After some fettling of the holes and tunnel radii the frame goes in without too
much effort, but when I sight down the firewall for a rough check of how far
away the relevant tubes are I find they do not appear co-planar. The top tube
is too far away at the starboard side, but the starboard vertical tube is almost
touching the firewall. The top tube is about the right distance from the
firewall
at the port side, but the port vertical tube could stand coming a little
closer. Oh, and the bottom horizontal tube is pretty much parallel to the
firewall.
The fuselage bottom moulding is sitting on a dolly that provides support
for the curve of the underside and I have not observed any measurable twist
in it.
I took the LG frame out and checked the parallelism of the tubes in question by
laying a steel flat diagonally across (the piece I had wasn't long enough to
stretch from side to side or top to bottom); it rocks audibly on 3 out of 4 of
the combinations. My digital level also shows that the top and bottom tubes are
about a degree different from each other and the side vertical tubes are about
half a degree different from each other.
Is this significant? Should I ask for a replacement LG frame?
My next step, if no other advice forthcoming, would be to try setting the
alignment
with the swinging arm LG02 fitted temporarily, and accept whatever misalignment
the tubes have with the firewall.
in friendship
Rowland
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