The main components of the nose landing gear and the retraction mechanism are assembled.

After having the parts heat  treated for stress relief it was time for machining the axis bores for the plain bearings. They must be absolutely in line within 0.02mm tolerance which is clearly beyond the capability of my own milling machine. Luckily there’s a local machine shop nearby whith a sufficiently large CNC mill combined with the right attitude towards challenges. It took two full days of highly concentraded work with me in the background biting my nails. The result is nothing short of perfection.

Th bores for the sleeve bearings were machined in the same run. With all the bolts in AN sizes I needed to order the sleeve bearings overseas, which took an eternity for them to arrive. Fitting them was easy with all the bores at the right size.

The last item was the attaching of the Venom nose gear to the self built structure. Again the bore needed to be machined to highest precision to fit the axle bolt. No big issue for that machine shop.

Meanwhile the nose landing gear is assembled on a jig and the first manual cycles indicate that there’s no major construction error. What is still missing are the electric actuator and one last connecting strut. The actuator should be delivered within the coming three weeks. The strut may take another few days under the welding hood.

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