The plans call out a bit of old tire rubber held on by several plies of BID on the bottom of the nose. This acts as a bumper to keep the very tip of the nose off the ground. Some people use it as a slide to protect the nose when they forget to put the gear down. So its dual purpose. Genius machinist ‘Marco’ who I have met via the net has offered me a gift of one of his special pucks which he had available after making one for himself.

It secures via two AN4 bolts and while its a bit heavy I do like the idea of a removable ‘puck’. What if its too high or low or gets ground off? Bolts might be handy.

That said I’ve copied his nut plate idea and as I’m yet to glass the bottom of the nose what a great time to put it in. This probably weighs more than the plans version, but not by much.

I’ve used 1/8″ 2024T3 drilled up including lightening holes and then alodine. Next the nutplates, rivets and fitting it to the nose as you see in pic 2. The screws are exactly 1.2″ apart center to center. I hope that works out.

I could have probably microed it in but went for flox just to add a little mass in case it ever gets used as a slide. Given its going on to bare foam micro probably would have been fine. It was a pretty close fit so all good either way. Lots of stuff to decide on this build.

Bumper mount plate

Insert cutout

Floxed in place