Tech counselor/DAR visit, nose gear hydraulic cylinder removal | 9.28.2020

This was our first meeting with my EAA Tech Counselor. He's also an FAA Designated Airworthiness Representative (DAR) and will be the one who does our airworthiness inspection. He went over the kit with us and told us what he's typically looking for on composite aircraft. Overall had no complaints with the kit as built so far and offered some helpful advise towards the completion and certification process.

Later in the day, I pulled the nose gear hydraulic cylinder, as it needs to be rebuilt and parts were on order from Velocity. Gotta say that this is *not* a fun task. I have pretty small arms, but working inside the keel to undo the bolt on the rear of the cylinder is not easy. At the top of the picture, you see my hand coming in the co-pilot access hole with the socket, and at the bottom, you can see my hand barely reaching the head of the bolt with an opposing wrench, coming in from the top access hole on the keel. Picture is taken through the control stick hole.

I managed to get the cylinder out without spilling *too* much hydraulic fluid, but took the opportunity to drain the old fluid out of the lines into a cup as much as possible. There was some old crusty hydraulic fluid from many years ago inside the keel that I also took the opportunity to clean up while I had the cylinder removed (and had already made a small mess). Emily assisted with all of this work. She's got smaller hands, so she definitely made a few of the fasteners easier.

Also cleaned the bottom of the fuselage where the cylinder mounts because there was sticky old hydraulic fluid present had seeped through the screw holes sometime in the past and flaked off the primer.

 

Flaking primer

While doing that, I noticed that the screws were somewhat proud of the surface, and I wanted to be able to fill the holes to paint the bottom smooth. Since the cylinder was out, now was the best time to remove the screws (and the mount) and countersink them deeper.

Loose primer scraped. New screws (with more countersink) at top, old at bottom.

Also took the opportunity to do the main gear cylinder mount screws at the same time since I could access the nuts without issue.

Countersunk deeper and flaking primer scraped.

- Jeff