Smooth Pilot

I will try to get some up this week. Pretty busy here taking advantage of flyable days when they are here. Hang in there.

On another note, I am so pleased with the flying characteristics of this plane that I am going to Baton Rouge this week end to pickup a second Caressa for a backup and get my replacement chin cowl.

Sheldon

Smooth Pilot

Here are three photos that should help with your installation. As you can see I just added two pieces of 3/16-inch plywood for the legs, used epoxy to keep them secure, located where to drill through to intersect the landing gear tray, and drilled the holes. I placed the tray into the aircraft and hand drilled a starter hole to make sure I go through the landing gear support. Oversize drilled the hole in the land gear support so a 4-40 t-nut would set in fairly firmly, screwed a socket head 4-40 screw to hold the t-nut in place, and hit the t-nut with a drop of CA. Made sure the CA was fully set, removed the socket head and double checked the hole alignments. Was off just a little bit on one screw so I oversize drilled the leg hole to the next sized drill bit up and that fixed the alignment and allowed the tray to be screwed in place. Make sure you use washers on the screw head to spread the load on the tray legs and to prevent too much dimpling on the legs. You have to look close, but in one picture you can see the two 4-40 nuts on the landing gear support.

Let me know if you have any more questions or have a better way to secure the tray. I am always willing to learn new things.

Sheldon

grotow

Thanks for the reply. The photos and description are appreciated. On another topic, I had a problem installing an aileron horn. One wing no problem. Second wing same location but just caught the edge of hard point ( I can only surmise this plate was either too small or not in proper location). This is my first composite wing and I could use some advice on best way to install additional hard block with least amount of cosmetic damage while having a solid gluing structure.

Smooth Pilot

grotow

What method do you use to set horizontal stabilizer?

Smooth Pilot

If you removed the tape that prevents the elevator from moving in relation to the stabilizer use some masking tape and re-tape it to make sure the stabilizer/elevator cannot move. Then set the fuselage so the canopy rail is level to 0.0 degrees using a Wixey meter. Insert the stabilizer through the holes in the fuselage. Set up the Wixey and make small adjustments on the grub screws (top and bottom) until the Wixey reads 0.0 degrees also and the grub screws are snug. Put the other stabilizer on and do the same thing. Keep checking the left and right stabilizer and fuselage to make sure nothing shifts on you while doing the process.

One of the stabilizers already has an additional set screw on the bottom that is already tight. All you have to do is drill through the access hole on the bottom of the other stabilizer into the carbon fiber support rod and add a similar small screw to hold it all together after the adjustments have been made. Check one final time to make sure all is well and they are both equal to 0.0 degrees.

My plane is inaccessible right now loaded in the car ready to go. When I get back from flying I will set it up on the table and take some photos. Sorry I did not do that before.

Sheldon

Smooth Pilot

Here are some photos:
First up is the stabilizer with some tape to hold the elevator in place and provide some friction on the leading edge so the frame does not slide down the leading edge. Second is the Wixey with the frame checking the level of the fuselage. The third photo shows the stabilizer and elevator also at zero. I give up trying to take pictures so they show right side up!! But you can get the idea.

Sheldon

grotow

I will try to upload some pictures of my Caressa. Checking CG with dowel between fuselage sides is new to me. However, the fuselage tends to spread apart. I made a jig with control rod that seems to work well in minimizing spread.