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I have been cleaning up a few issues before moving on to the next big and exciting step. What step is that?  Sorry, this page first.

I showed off all the pieces of the main landing gear in the last post and I have done a few things that need to get done before the gear gets fitted into the fuselage permanently. The first is to enlarge the hole in the fuselage that the gear comes out of to the final size.

With the weldments in place, I used them as a guide to file out the edges of the hole to allow the leg to be inserted into the weldment.  Then I made a uniform mark around the leg, removed the leg and the weldment and enlarged the hole to the mark. It is a little less than the plans specified 1/16” gap but it is fine.  I did both legs. I also test fitted the axle and wheel assembly.
          I then removed the weldments and the legs. Next I drilled a pilot hole in the weldments that I will use as the starting point for the upper leg attach hole.

          Again, I am aggravated that the weldments did not have this hole drilled per the plans. In this case, the hole location is specified on the plans prior to the piece being welded. After it is welded it becomes almost impossible to locate the hole as the reference point is welded over.  I was able to devise a way to measure, mark and verify the hole location but it was not easy and took a lot of repetition to make sure I was really in the correct spot.