A set of Wheel Pants
By Ron Roberts
(All photos may be
"clicked" to enlarge.)
You probably already know, but if not you can read about it in this newsletter a few issues back, that a
few months ago I was given a 30% Extra 330L that had been crashed. That airplane, powered with
a Fox 3.2 gasolene engine, is flying now and looks pretty good. I think it would look better if
it had a pair of wheel pants. Unfortunately, I do not have a pair and don't know what happened to the ones
that must have come with the airplane new.
As things sometimes work out, a few weeks ago Bill Womble offered me a deal I could not pass up on a Byron Originals
33% Pitts S1B, biplane. The Pitts needs some repair and I intend to repair it and document the repair in this
newsletter sometime in the future. It will be interesting, because the Byron Originals Pitts is completely FOAM!
Thats, right, FOAM. No fuselage stringers, no fuselage formers, no wing ribs. In fact, no balsa anywhere! The
fuselage is made of hollow, molded foam with "walls" about one inch thick. The wings are solid foam. The tail
surfaces are all solid foam. There are a few pieces of plywood epoxied inside the fuselage to mount stuff to, and
there are hard wood "spars" epoxied into the wings and tail surfaces, but otherwise, all FOAM. Like I said ... it
will be interesting.
I had the Pitts hanging in my garage and inspiration struck me --- which isn't always good. "It has a
pair of wheel pants", I told myself. And, it's a 30% airplane! Why not take the pants off the Pitts and use
them on the Extra?
As you can see in the right photo, they were not the right color and were in need of repair. They were cracked in
some places and the mounting brackets were loose.
So, off they came. I held them up to the Extra and although they looked just a bit large, they didn't look too
bad, so I decided to continue. Even if I don't use them on the Extra, they still need repairing before they
can be used on the Pitts.
First, I took the blue trim film off. You can see the general condition of the pants in this photo if you enlarge
it. I think the repair sequence will be to first, repair the cracks from the inside with fiberglass matting and epoxy,
reinforce the mounting brackets, sand the rough white paint, fill the dents and holes then prime and paint them blue
to match the blue on the Extra.
Here you can see I have started. I have peeled off the film and have used laquer thinner to take off the blue
"glue" stuff. Now all I have to do is everything mentioned above...
You probably already know, but if not you can read about it in this newsletter a few issues back, that a
few months ago I was given a 30% Extra 330L that had been crashed. That airplane, powered with
a Fox 3.2 gasolene engine, is flying now and looks pretty good. I think it would look better if
it had a pair of wheel pants. Unfortunately, I do not have a pair and don't know what happened to the ones
that must have come with the airplane new.
As things sometimes work out, a few weeks ago Bill Womble offered me a deal I could not pass up on a Byron Originals
33% Pitts S1B, biplane. The Pitts needs some repair and I intend to repair it and document the repair in this
newsletter sometime in the future. It will be interesting, because the Byron Originals Pitts is completely FOAM!
Thats, right, FOAM. No fuselage stringers, no fuselage formers, no wing ribs. In fact, no balsa anywhere! The
fuselage is made of hollow, molded foam with "walls" about one inch thick. The wings are solid foam. The tail
surfaces are all solid foam. There are a few pieces of plywood epoxied inside the fuselage to mount stuff to, and
there are hard wood "spars" epoxied into the wings and tail surfaces, but otherwise, all FOAM. Like I said ... it
will be interesting.
I had the Pitts hanging in my garage and inspiration struck me --- which isn't always good. "It has a pair of wheel pants", I told myself. And, it's a 30% airplane! Why not take the pants off the Pitts and use them on the Extra?
As you can see in the right photo, they were not the right color and were in need of repair. They were cracked in some places and the mounting brackets were loose.
So, off they came. I held them up to the Extra and although they looked just a bit large, they didn't look too bad, so I decided to continue. Even if I don't use them on the Extra, they still need repairing before they can be used on the Pitts.
First, I took the blue trim film off. You can see the general condition of the pants in this photo if you enlarge it. I think the repair sequence will be to first, repair the cracks from the inside with fiberglass matting and epoxy, reinforce the mounting brackets, sand the rough white paint, fill the dents and holes then prime and paint them blue to match the blue on the Extra.
Here you can see I have started. I have peeled off the film and have used laquer thinner to take off the blue "glue" stuff. Now all I have to do is everything mentioned above...
Ron