Fairings and Wheel Pants
Cumbersome is the only way I can describe this section! Its important to read through the entire section before begining so that you know the 'method to the madness'. Building the wheel and leg fairings were straightforward enough, but still required a great deal of time.
We did install a more robust U-1004B nut extension to ensure we had a solid fit to the main wheel fairings.
Before fitting the built fairings to the airplane, we followed a very specific aircraft alignment and leveling procedure detailed in the plans. This was to assure the best airborne alignment of the fairings to provide best aerodynamics during flight. We used jacks at the wing tie-down points to bring the plane off its mains as well as a weighted tie-down for the tail tie-down to bring if off its nose wheel. You need the plane off it's gear for not just the wheel fairing install, but also for the main gear intersection fairings. You need to let the gear relax before effecting the Van's procedures or you'll get an incorrect alignment. We used tape as our centerline point.
