Moving on, the next step is to cut out the slot for the nose wheel gear leg. The Dremel was outfitted with a cutting wheel and used to make the rough cuts followed by hand sanding down to the scribe lines.
After the rough cuts were made for the slot but prior to separating the two cowling halves, Bernie and Mike were available to help me do a test fitting while both cowling halves were still held together with Clecos and duct tape. As expected, the cowling touched the spinner back plate because the cowling halves are still 1/8" too long since the aft edges have not yet been sanded to the scribe lines. If taken to the scribe lines all the way around, the cowling appears it may be skewed slightly left of center … by having a little extra material to work with, the hope is to improve on that a little when the lower cowling half is fitted. At this point the two halves were separated and the lower cowling half was carried back outside to finish sand the rough edges of the slot.
Sanding down the edges of the slot for the nose wheel gear leg.
Almost there … the slot needs just a little more tweaking to get down to
the scribe line.
The lower cowl will get fitted first after six pieces of hinge material are fabricated to length. Eventually the hinge material will be riveted onto the inside edges of the fiberglass cowling halves … the end result is typical the Van’s Aircraft fleet in that the cowling halves will be secured to each other and the firewall with hinges sporting removable pins.
