Well I’ve got a set of KMP retracts that I thing will be much happier in a 8# plane than in the 13# plane they were intended for. I want to run the air lines before I button up the flap area so I need to install the retracts to know where the lines will need to go. To install the retracts I need to open up the gap between the landing gear rails. I removed all the material from the aft most rail . The reason for this is simple, it is a fact in engineering that any material is three times stronger in compression than in tension. One can then conclude that the rail loaded in compression (aft) can be 1/3 the rail in tension (front). While there are a lot more factors involved in the actual stress to each rail the important thing is to realize that the first point of failure is the front rail.

The rails in this plane are five layers of light ply so for some time I considered removing the front rail and replace it with maple. That would allow me to rotate the retract mech. With out adding spacers behind the aft ear. But I want to see if this setup will work So I used
#6 x 3/4 sheet metal screws to hold down the retract mechanism. Once everything was set up I removed the screws and the retracts. Soaked all the rails and joints I could with CA, also the screw holes. Lastly I painted all the joints with epoxy and foamed all the blocks to the top sheeting.

I’ve also installed the control horns on the aileron and flaps. Please take note of how far back on the flap the control horn is. Basically I set the flaps to work between 0 and 45 degrees, so the hole in the control horn wants to be over the hinge line at 22.5 degrees or half the travel. Doing this will help give good accurate control of the flaps all through its travel. One of the biggest mistakes I see with flap setups is that the linkage is spongy at one end of its travel. A spongy deployed flap will make staying in trim with the flaps deployed impossible, and provide a great deal of frustration.

I’ve marked were the hinge blocks are on the end caps and stripped the covering off were I plan to glass the center section.

Joe