SonexBuilders.net

Hi ya'll,

So I'm fitting my cowl and now thinking ahead to how I'll need to trim my already made leg fairings. I'd like to be able to remove the cowl without taking off the fairings (on my conventional gear waiex), which seems to me means I'd want the cowl to fit around the front part of the fairing? I'm kinda thinking about glassing a small intersection fairing into the bottom of the cowl using the leg fairing and clay as a mold.

Any advice?

Kevin

Hi Kevin, I think you need to do both. I trimmed back the upper rear part of the leg fairing and also made a cutout in the lower cowl so that the fairing plugs into the cowl. You don't need to remove the fairings to remove the cowl, and when the cowl is fitted it helps hold everything in place. However, Tony Richardson did a much nicer job on his Sonex - he glassed small fairings into the lower cowl - see photos.

And here's his final result:

You'll still need to trim the lower end of the fairings.
If you look at Tony's page on the Sonex Australia site: https://sonexaus.wikispaces.com/Tony%20%28Richo%29%20Richardson%20Sonex%20813 you'll see that he got quite keen on glassing things - a habit more to be pitied than condemned (Hi Tony).

Peter

Kevin,

Do exactly as you propose. If you are building a taildragger, a side benefit is that you can then trim away the forward top of the gear leg fairing to provide space for the brake lines, all to be hidden behind the fiberglass cuff. You won't be disappointed.

Art,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Sonex taildragger #95,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Jabiru 3300 #261

Gear Leg Fairing

Kevin.......Check out the RV airplanes for lots of ideas on intersection fairings. I used a separate fairing at the top of the gear leg on my RV-6 and also on my RV-7. The aluminum gear leg fairing (now Van's uses fiberglass) is cut about an 1" short at the top end to allow a little movement to remove the cowl. The fairing is made deep enough to cover that 1" gap.

The other option is what you mentioned........bond a fairing (cuff) to the cowl that the gear leg fairing fits inside. This works well although I have not tried it. Also, most Van's RV's have a fairing at the bottom to join the gear leg fairing and the wheel pant........something you don't see on the Sonex airplanes but would likely add some speed as well (and it looks nicer).

Gordon.........Onex.......Hummel 2400

Hi Kevin. I also faired in the cowling to go over the gear leg fairings as you describe. No need to take the fairings off to remove the cowling but I do need to remove the cowling to remove the gear leg fairings. I also should have allowed more clearance to the top rear of the fairings as I now have dents to the fuse bottom skin where the undercarriage has flexed on landing.
Only picture I could find on here. http://www.mykitlog.com/users/display_l ... 2553&row=3

Thanks all - super useful! I'll do something approximately like you said. ;-)