Mount The Landing Gear - Top Flite P-47D Thunderbolt User Manual

(providing a 1/16" gap between the flap skin and the
inner TE sheet—refer to the photo in the following
step). Test fit the inner TE sheet. If necessary, sand the
balsa side of the inner TE sheet so it will be even with
the aft wing sheeting. When satisfied with the fit, glue
the inner TE sheet to the wing.
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14. Bevel the inside of the TE of the top flap
skin (as indicated by the dashed lines on the plan
and in the sketch on page 38), then glue it to the top
of the flap ribs. Do not glue the top flap skin to any
of the wing sheeting.
❏ ❏
15. Bevel the inside of the TE of one of the
aileron skins, then glue it to the top of the aileron ribs.
❏ ❏
16. Remove the wing panel from your building
board ( yaaaay! ). Trim the jig tabs off the bottom of the
ribs. Look for glue joints that don't look strong or ones
you've missed earlier and reinforce them with CA.
Sand the bottom of the ribs, shear webs and spars
even to accommodate the bottom wing sheeting. If
you prefer, you can go ahead and "neaten up" the top
of the wing by trimming the top of the LE and the tip
LE even with the top sheeting. Don't final shape until
instructed to do so.
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17. Using the hole in the wing bolt plate as a
guide, use a 1/4" drill or a 1/4" brass tube sharpened
on one end to cut a hole in the top wing sheeting.
This will help you locate the hole in the wing bolt
plate after the wing is totally sheeted.
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18. Return to step 1 on page 32, position the left wing
panel plan over your building board and build the left
wing panel.

Mount the landing gear

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1. Make two 3" long outer landing gear rails from
the 1/4" x 5/8" x 6" maple stick and two 2-1/4" long
inner landing gear rails from the 1/4" x 1/2" x 5"
maple stick.
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2. Position, but do not glue the outer rail in rib 6 of
the right wing panel. Temporarily hold the inner rail to
rib 5 with a small C-clamp.
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3. Test fit the landing gear. Position the outer rail in
rib 6 as close to the gear as possible (to give the
mounting screws as much "meat" as possible to bite
into), yet still allowing for installation and removal of
the gear.
-35-
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4. Once you have established the exact positioning
of the landing gear rails and test fitted the gear, use
30-minute epoxy to permanently glue the rails into
position. For additional strength, add Great Planes
Pro Milled Fiberglass to the epoxy. For a secure bond,
it is not necessary to apply an excessive amount of
epoxy which makes a mess and interferes with the fit
of the gear. Instead, make certain you thoroughly mix
equal amounts of epoxy and make fillets, but keep
them neat. Do not use fast curing epoxy.
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5. After the epoxy has fully hardened, drill 7/64"
holes in the rails for #6 x 1/2" screws (not included) to
mount the gear. Temporarily mount the landing gear.
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6. Temporarily remove the partially die-cut sections
of ribs 2.5, 3.5 and 4, so the gear can be retracted for
test fitting. Mount a 5" wheel to the landing gear, then
retract the gear into the wing to make sure there is no
interference with any of the ribs. Make adjustments
where needed.
Note: If you have to enlarge the hole in the wheel to
fit on the axle bolt that comes with the gear, use a
size "F" (or 1/4") drill.
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7. If you haven't already done so, drill holes in ribs
5 through 2A for routing your retract air lines.
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8. Fit the retracts into the left panel the same way.
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9. Now that you see how the retracts fit in the wing
and that they operate correctly, replace the partially
die-cut sections into the ribs and glue them in place.