fairings done
I finally finished fitting all of the wheel pants and gear leg fairings, except for the main upper intersection fairings. Thank goodness for the Fairings Etc. intersection fairings. I am glad I didn’t have to fabricate those from scratch. All of the wheel pants and fairings are now removed, as well as their mounts, for phase I flight testing. They’ll be reinstalled sometime much later after flying.
I noticed that the main tires have been loosing air slowly so I decided to replace the tubes with Michelin Air Stop tubes to see if they are any better at holding pressure. Also, I struggled with the straight stem on the original Aero Classic tubes when originally installing them. With the original tubes, when inflated, the inside pressure would push the stem against the wheel at a funky angle. I didn’t get any warm fuzzies from that and hoped there would be a some difference with the Michelin stem. There is (pictured), and that little jog in the stem makes a big difference in the fit.
So, during the process of removing the main wheel pant brackets, the main wheels had to come off. I used that opportunity to swap out the tubes. Piece of cake. I’m glad I did. I also installed the axle cotter pins and secured all of the brake line fittings.
Hopefully my GNS430 is getting its WAAS upgrade at Garmin today.
