Print
Hits: 2870

DSC01738.thumbI noted a couple of weeks ago that the right wheel pant had some paint missing - it wasn't that visible, as it was on the left side of the pant, quite low down. Looking more closely, the pant had obviously flexed quite a bit for some reason, as there were quite a few cracks in the paint.

 


DSC01741.thumbI removed the pant to bring it home to inspect it and touch up the paint. It was clear that the tire had hit the aft edge of the cutout in the pant, and that caused the fiberglass to flex. I had originally fitted the pants and trimmed the cutout at the bottom using the cheap tires delivered as part of the Finishing Kit. Those tires eventually wore out, and were replaced with a pair of Condor tires. The Condor tires had much more rubber on the them, and were slightly larger than the original tires. I checked the clearances to the cutout in the wheel pants, and concluded that while the clearance was adequate, even if slightly less than with the original tires. It seems I was wrong.

 


DSC01744.thumbThis weekend I touched up the white patch with some model aircraft paint, and enlarged the cutout slightly. The paint is not exactly the same shade gold, but it isn't too far off, and doesn't jump out at you.

 


DSC01745.thumb

 


Today I put the wheel pant back on, and checked the clearances on the other wheel pant - they seem OK. I had hoped to do some aerobatics today, but there was a quasi-stationary front a bit south of us, and the ceiling was only about 2500 ft. I did get a short flight off. I had hoped for a longer flight, but the ceilings were fairly low not too far west of the airport, so I didn't go too far from home.