Belly pan fastening
The belly pan needs to be fastened firmly so that it doesn't fall off. It
must not rattle either.
It would be nice to be able to fix it without tools or bolts that might fall off
because of vibration.
The best functioning system I have seen so far is Ola Fremming's spring
system. That is not very aestetical, though.
I designed a new system with same functionality as Ola's system but I hid it
inside.
When my Sombrero's belly pan is fastened by this system with two springs and six
dowels it is so strong that I can lift the the plane
holding the belly pan only.
The springs pull the the belly pan towards the fuselage to prevent rattling. The
springs are fool proof,
they do not come loose inadvertedly. It is also not possible to stretch them too
much, because the bolt restricts movement.
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There are two 3 mm steel dowels behind the wing. Belly pan has 3.5
mm holes where the dowels fit.
Both fuselage and belly pan has 4 mm plywood doublers to support
fixing points.
See also pipe tunnel extension to enable use of Bolly EQ 140 N pipe.
Also Greve pipe would fit.
Pipe tunnel extension has 5x5 mm balsa collar and it glued in place
with epoxy-micro-balloon mixture. |
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See the fastening spring inside the fuselage. Spring is made of 1 mm
piano wire and with 13 mm stroke
it creates appr. 20 N force. The spring is attached to a plywood plate
with a screw that is secured wuth CA.
Note also the Sullivan pushrod going to throttle. This type of pushrod
dampen vibration and is recommended
with mini servos instead of rigid steel or CF pushrod. Especially
important with soft engine mounts. |
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Part of spring outside. The slot is necessary because the spring is
flipped in lock position, see below.
There is also a pair of dowels in front of the fixed landing gear. |
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.See the slot in belly pan. It is very easy to lock/unlock the latch
with a finger movement.
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Front dowels of 2 mm steel.
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.Another view of front dowels.
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