For a while now, fairing kits for the 750 STOL have been available from Zenith, Mark Pensenstadler (kitplaneenthusiast.com) , and North American Aerospace Holdings (the manufacturer). I initially purchased from Zenith the upper fairings for the struts and jury struts - they all fit quite nicely except the forward strut fairing needed a revision and Mark Seaver at NAA quickly came up with a new version (similar to the Cruzer's) which fit great. I should point out that although a couple of knots extra cruise speed is nice, I had no expectations of turning the 750 STOL into a speed demon, but the fairings do give the plane a more "finished" look.

Obviously, the junction of the fuselage, struts, and landing gear is the "draggiest" area on the plane (talk about "flat plate drag" - this junction literally has a flat plate!)  that could definitely benefit from a fairing:

So, I purchased from NAA the fairings for this area:

If you think about it, this fairing requires an extremely complex fitting installation - you've got two struts entering the fairing at angles to each other, and, where the strut openings in the fairing need to be located is dependent on the distance the opening is from the fuselage!  On top of this, the struts' opening will need to be in the correct location fore-and-aft in relation to the gear leg opening.

I'm thinking one work-around as far as the strut openings will be to cut out the flat area where the struts pass through completely off, cut a flat piece of ABS to accommodate the struts, and once the fairing is located on the gear leg, glue the strut flat plate to the fairing.  Clear as mud, correct? LOL!

Another question I have is how much does the gear leg flex?  Can you just run the gear leg through the opening (once you've cut the end off), or, does the entire underside of the gear leg portion of the fairing need to be cut away to accommodate downward flexion of the gear leg?

Finally, where would be best to make a cut to allow the fairing to be flexed open to install around the struts and gear leg?  Cut it in half vertically (maybe between the two strut openings?), cut a slit horizontally at the aft end of the strut opening (and a slit between the two strut openings) and either at the aft end of the gear leg opening or the underside of the gear leg opening?

As you can see, this is really a quite complex 3-D problem, to put it mildly!  Has anyone successfully installed one of these fairings on a 750 STOL??? (Cruzers don't count as they only have one strut which greatly simplifies the problem!) Pictures of a successful installation would be worth a 1,000 words!

My gut feeling is that it might take a few mangled attempt$ before one gets this right!  :(

John

N750A