ORIGINAL: VerneK
The delam happens on the sides just above the landing gear. I added some carbon cloth in that area just above the gear plate and also mounted support crutches above the landing gear plate. In addition, I ''joined'' the two halves of the landing gear with a carbon strap similar to what Najary shows in his Axitra build (he used aluminum). My landing gear plate was 1/8'' 5-ply laminated on both sides with carbon cloth. I ground/sanded the seam you mentioned as low as I could and then mounted the plate with a real thick, pasty mixture of cabosil and resin. I don't recommend sanding down the center of the plate because that's the area of the plate that sees the greatest stress. Every time you land, the force is trying to break the plate in half. The joiner and crutches help in that regard, but I still wouldn't do anything to weaken it.
Verne Koester
ORIGINAL: gaRCfield
Thanks Verne, I think I remembered that.
Mounting the gear noticed the sheeting is about 1/8 in away (floating) from the horizontal part of the gear plate. Leaving it alone would bend the skin of the airplane. I wonder if that contributed to the cracks people found in the side of their plane? I will probably recess the gear almost flush with the skin and mount directly to the block.
So this plane had the gear block installed at the factory. The gear is supposed to bolt to the outside/bottom side of sheeting, in the chin cowl. I noticed the sheeting felt a little soft and took a closer look. You can see there is *some adhesive in there, but also some voids. So I opened up the sheeting and found the adhesive is not even contacting the sheeting in most places.
I don't have a pic of the gear installed yet, but it will be mounted directly to the bottom of the pre-installed landing gear block, which I sanded smooth and will fillet in the corners w/microballoons.
The gear is Graphtech F3A gear, customized with more sweep (just slightly more than stock integral, less than Bolly gear). It is definitely more flexible than the Integral stock gear, but I also will reinforce the sides of the fuse, once I really understand where the cracks are happening.