Gear strut fairings

[AKKen07]

So I’m down to fairings to finish this project. And they are a somewhat bigger beast than I expected. One that I’m definitely unsure of is the plastic gear strut fairings which look like they should slip on when the struts are detached. But I don’t see how to keep them in place or oriented with the longitudinal axis. Then I wonder - Are these even worth the trouble? Thoughts?

[alaskabearhawk]

Earlier this month:

https://bearhawkforums.com/forum/tools-technics-and-best-practices/78111-how-to-attach-the-shock-strut-fairing

[AKKen07]

Paul, The link in the thread to your kit log doesn’t work for me. I can’t load that site at all in fact. Any chance for a brief description?

[Nev]

I added some red RTV to mine which has so far held them in place well. RTV was simply what I had in the hangar at the time, and red....well.....speed generates heat

[Mark Goldberg]

You need to glue those PVC streamlined pieces onto the shocks struts at the top and the bottom. The top of the shock struts gets heat from the exhaust. That can make epoxy glue release. But if glued at the bottom as well the PVC tubes seem to stay in place and properly oriented. Mark

[Utah-Jay]

Are these for increased speed? Could be good timing as I am about to reinstall the gear post covering

Anyone have a photo?

[rodsmith]

Yes, round tubes have something like 9 times the drag of streamlined as I recall.

[AKKen07]

Great, thanks Y’all. For some reason gluing them on hadn’t occurred to me. Red RTV it is

[alaskabearhawk]

Here's my kitlog post. For some reason the Kitlog server is down:

I started by installing the struts and landing gear so I could get a good approximation as to how best angle the streamlined tubing with the struts in relation to the airflow. Once I got them marked, I took them off and then fit them to the strut. The top part of the tubing was fishmouthed to fit nicely where the tube transitions into the piston tube. It went really easy, just taking a bit off at a time. It wasn’t difficult at all. Next was to glue them in place. I was a bit skeptical about gluing them so I called Mark Goldberg to confirm. He did say this was acceptable and actually worked quite well. He did say to use a high-temp epoxy because the exhaust will soften regular epoxy. This happened on his, so it was good advice. Rob Taylor gave me a few of these MonoJect disposable syringes to apply the epoxy in each end. They worked really well and before you know it I had two completed shock struts! I put some tape around where the epoxy might migrate to just to mask it off and roughed up the paint just a bit with sandpaper to break the shine. I left the bottoms open so any moisture wouldn’t cause any problems.

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[robcaldwell]

I used white 3M marine adhesive. https://www.amazon.com/3M-5200FC-Mar...2-d605505c9d1e

[huntaero]

Where do you get the streamline Tube?

[alaskabearhawk]

Try contacting Mark Goldberg