Installing the WD-721 gear wedments - 6 hours

 Well don't be fooled..Getting the WD-721 gear weldments installed is not the easiest process for a number of reasons. A while back, I took extra time to make sure the gear weldments fit the spar and all bolt heads before the spar was riveted into the fuse. This involved opening some of the bolt holes very slightly to get everything to fit. Boy I was glad I did that then, because doing it now would be an insane pain in the butt. 

The next hurdle is getting the actual weldments into the fuse. The nutplates on the forward spar interfere and need to be removed. The gear leg holes in the bottom skin are just a tad too tight on my project so I needed to open them up slightly.

 Next fit hurdle is the fit of the downward leg on the weldment. Lots of build logs talk about how theirs interfere with the floor stiffener. Fortunately I don't have an issue with this as others do, however in order to get the welment into place you do need to get the flange slipped behind the floor stiffener. 

It does take a little effort to get the weldment in under the forward flange of the spar. You have to lift on the spar flange a little bit

Now that the weldment is in....comes the most annoying part. The weldment interferes with one of the lower rivets on the side of the fuse. I anticipated the interference when I initially fit the weldments prior to fuse assembly...I did make some notches in the weldments, but apparently not enough.

So out the weldments come....for the hundredth time. And I have to open the notches a bit more. 

 After some work with the files...I have the notches set and the weldments fit tight to the spar. 

 

The weldments are fit....but not entirely bolted to the spar yet. That involves another work session and frankly...I just don't want to look at these again for a while.