I too have lost one of these bolts.

I haven’t done this, but you could drill a couple of 1/16 inch holes in the wheel pant maybe ½ inch or so apart, aft of the bolt and run a safety wire thru them.  Alternatively, you could flox in a small loop of safety wire just aft of the bolt that you could use as an attachment for a safety wire.  Similar to the way that the fuel drains in the wings are safetied

 

Bill .

 

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From: Lancair Mailing List [mailto:lml@lancaironline.net] On Behalf Of Skip Slater
Sent: Tuesday, October 14, 2014 9:38 AM
To: Lancair Mailing List
Subject: [LML] Re: Safety wiring will pants

 

When we built up my ES wheel pants, we bonded a large metal washer to the outside of the bolt holes, then put filler on the sides to blend it in and a couple of BID over it.  The idea was to prevent stress from cracking the fiberglass by creating a hard point and spreading the load.  It doesn't protect the paint - I put a flat washer under the bolt to do that.  I've also lost bolts and spacers twice, even though I preflight exactly the same way Gary described; by wiggling the back end of the pant to check for tightness on each walkaround.  Even though I now put Locktite on the ends of the threads, that bolt will still back it's way out over time.  I just found one loose the last time I went flying a couple of days ago and it took about a turn and a half to get the bolt tight again.

 

If I had it to do over again, I'd probably figure out a way to secure the bolt because it's been a persistent issue. 

 

Skip Slater

From: Gary Casey

Sent: Tuesday, October 14, 2014 3:49 AM

To: Lancair Mailing List

Subject: [LML] Re: Safety wiring will pants

 

I have found that the bolt needs to be part of the preflight inspection. Just wiggle the aft tip of the pant and if it moves, tighten the bolt. I hesitate to really tighten it as it would crush the pant material, so it's a judgement call. If you don't tighten it enough it for sure will come loose. I'm guessing, but it seems like about 10 ft-lbs is enough. One way to fix it would be to put a small (SS?) metal plate on the surface screwed to the pant, maybe with one screw behind the hole. Then put a star washer under the bolt head. Those bolt heads bug me - they must be costing 2 knots! I was going to either build a cavity in the pant to make them flush or to find a button head bolt. I did neither.

Gary

I have lost my outer bolt and spacer two times now for my wheel pants on the=
main gear.

Has anybody considered a way to safety wire the bolt to the wheel pant the b=
olt to prevent loosing them inflight?

I just hope it didn't hit anybody.