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Tom,
Regarding attachment of the stub wing skin, I would strongly recommend
Hysol for quite a few reasons. At the speeds a Legacy travels, I find
it pretty hard to envision a mechanical method of fastening that would
preclude any and all possibility of flutter/vibration somewhere between
the leading edge and trailing edge. Then there's the problem of the
leading edge, which is quite critical on our airplane. Factory data
shows that even when something as as small as their landing light is
installed in the leading edge, there is a significant speed penalty.
Having a gap, regardless of how perfect it's made, opens you up to a
big unknown aerodynamic question mark. Then there's the issue of
reliability, there's got to be a way to ensure redundancy,
verifiability, etc. Losing a stub skin in flight would be
catastrophic. (it's happened once before on a Legacy)
Thought about from another angle, I'm not sure there would be any real
advantage being able to open the stub wing. There isn't that much
under there; normal gear, strut, and tire service is easily
accomplished from below. Can't really think of anything that I've had
to do in the last 400 hours of flying that makes me wish the skin was
removable. Anything on a big scale, say rebuilding the strut,
requires it's complete removal, which can be done from below.
It's definitely an interesting idea, but from my limited perspective I
see few, if any real advantages, and only and increase in weight,
complexity, maintenance, etc. Remember, as with anything installed on
an airplane, it can fail, it will increase the hours building and
maintaining, always winds up adding weight, etc. I have become a firm
believer in keeping everything as simple as possible.
Micah Froese
Lancair Legacy
N171MF
400 hours
Posted: April 1,2010
While working on my Legacy kit it occurred to me that once it's
flying inspection
and maintenance of the main gear would be so much easier if the
stub wing skin
could be removed. I attached a hinge to the leading edge so
that the skin could be
opened as shown in the picture. Now I'm trying to decide what sort of
fasteners
I should use on the trailing edge. Any suggestions?
Tom Gourley
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