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Nutplates for HS gap fairing

Bill.Peyton

Well Known Member
I am debating using K1000-06 nut plates to attach the HS gap fairing in lieu of tapping the holes in the F-1032 L and R. I am concerned with putting the additional holes in the longeron to attach the nut plate. Has anyone done this or have an opinion?
 
Why would you want to go through the extra work Bill? Follow the plans, tap the holes, and be done with it.
 
Nutplates

I put nut plates on my 6 every where I could. Floating ones mostly. Easy to replace the nut plates when needed instead of drilling out the worn hole and retapping it for a bigger screw and this WILL happen durning the life of your plane.:eek: Alittle extra work but why not do the job right in the first place.:)
Only money and time.......:D
 
FWIW, I just followed the plans also. Unless you use brute force torquing down on the screws, those threads will outlast the airframe.
 
I put nut plates on my 6 every where I could. Floating ones mostly. Easy to replace the nut plates when needed instead of drilling out the worn hole and retapping it for a bigger screw and this WILL happen durning the life of your plane.:eek: Alittle extra work but why not do the job right in the first place.:)
Only money and time.......:D

If you strip the hole, drill it out and put a nut plate in. I have never heard of that actually happening, so I believe tapping the hole is doing it right, but to each his own.
 
HS gap fairing

If your referring to the fairing at the bottom of the HS, why not just rivit it on. You never have to take it off anyway.

Ed Booth, Trenton, SC
 
I would go by the plans. Take your time tapping the holes and use oil, backing it off a few times to clear the tap. (You probably know all this). After doing this on my plane, I can't imagine the hole wearing out unless I'm using a cordless drill at a high rate to tighten my fairing screws.
 
Ok, I give up .... I will tap the holes and be done with it!! I was concerned about wear over time and the screws backing out, but you guys are right, it would take me a lot longer to install the nut plates at this point.
Thanks for the input....
 
I am debating using K1000-06 nut plates to attach the HS gap fairing in lieu of tapping the holes in the F-1032 L and R. I am concerned with putting the additional holes in the longeron to attach the nut plate. Has anyone done this or have an opinion?
First off, I have no clear idea of what the lower HS gap fairing actually covers on the 10 so my thoughts may or may not apply. On the -6 series, there is never any need to remove that gap fairing because there is nothing under it to examine so rather than tap a few holes in the longeron to attach the gap fairing per plans, I chose to bond the fairing into place with proseal. Using no hardware, it is very clean method of attachment. Again, having no clear idea what the gap fairing actually covers on the -10, the proseal method of permanent attachment may or may not be worth considering as an alternative to drilling additional holes in the longeron and using hardware to attach the gap fairing.

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2 holes holding the lower tails of the fiberglass right? If you tap them clean it leaves a nice deep set of threads. Blue loctite make you feel better?
 
On many aerobatic planes the screws are regularly replaced with nut plates. Every annual on all of my birds over the years one or two were found stripped and had to be replaced with bigger, or a nutplate. Probably because there are a whole lot more of them used on a tube fuselage frame than semi-monocoque. I'm sure some of the damage can be caused by using a cordless driver, but removing (or replacing) all the screws by hand that hold the panels on a Pitts is a daunting task. When I built my Model 12, I put nut plates everywhere the plans called for screws, because of the eventual wear. I don't know if it's really necessary on the -7, but I am considering it myself.

As always, YMMV.
 
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