I cleaned up the layer of flox I applied to the wheel pants flange.
You can see how much thickness it added to the flange. The flange is much stiffer now and fits really tightly over the rear half of the wheel pants. With the screws tightened down now, the flange no longer flexes and distorts.
The flange on the forward half of the wheel pants had gotten pretty thin over the top due to sanding to try and line up the surface with the top of the aft half. There was also a gap underneath the flange which was causing the flange to flex down when tightening the screws. I applied a layer of packing tape to the aft flange and some electrical tap to the joint. I then mixed up some epoxy/flox and applied it to the underside of the forward flange and installed the pants.
Some local RV pilots arranged a camping trip at the Alpine County Airport. We had about 10 planes show up on Saturday morning to the quiet little strip nestled in the foothills of the eastern side of the Sierras. I took my 11-year-old son which was his first real trip in the plane.
There’s not much there, just a 5k’ runway and a small ramp, but there is a really nice spot to camp just a couple of hundred feet off to the side of the runway.
After everyone showed up, we hiked down to the Carson River for lunch and to wade in the water.
After resting back at camp for a bit, a few of us decided to hike to the top of a small hill on the other side of the runway (you can see it to the far left of the first picture). The terrain was pretty easy going and we reached the top after 45 minutes or so. Here’s a nice shot looking back toward the Sierras. Lake Tahoe is just beyond those mountains.
The rubber on the lower right wing root fairing came loose and started banging into the bottom of the airplane in flight. I pulled of the fairings, and the rubber easily came off. It looks like the 3M weatherstrip adhesive I used didn’t work well.
