Fuselage: Top skins, seats and cabin

 

 

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January 1-7, 2007: (3.0 hr)   

The last major thing to finish up from the fuselage kit, is attaching the empennage.  However, I need to move one of my cars outside to make more space for that task.  That is not something I want to do this time of year, especially with all the snow we have been getting.  Guess I will wait for Spring.

I did go ahead and build the elevator push-pull rods.  There are two rods..  One that goes from the stick assembly to the elevator bell crank, and one that goes from the elevator bell crank to the elevator horns.

 

Here they have been cut to length, cleaned, prepped, and primed inside and out.
After the primer cured, I drilled the rivet holes for the rod-end bearing attachment.

 

This is the smaller push-rod that runs from the stick to the bell crank.
After deburing, the rod-ends got blind riveted into place.
I measured and adjusted the rod-ends to match the recommended dimensions on the drawings.  The rod end jam nuts were then torqued using a crows foot on my torque wrench.
When I went to install the stick to bell crank push rod, I discovered I could not fit it into the center tunnel while it had both rod ends on.  I ended up having to remove one of the rod-ends to slide the push rod into place.  With things in place, I then re-installed the rod-end.

 

Here is where the push rod attaches to the stick.  Kind of hard to see with the aileron trim assembly in the way.
This is the other end, where the push rod attaches to the bell crank.  I will hold off on attaching the 2nd push rod until I am ready to attach the empennage.
January 13-14, 2007: (2.0 hr)   

I decided to go with a parking brake in my plane, and that brought on the challenge of how to mount it.  I decided it would probably work best if I could mount it in the same space on the firewall where the brake line bracket exists.  I drilled out and removed the bracket and built this new custom one..  Kind of hard to see in this picture, but the bracket is designed to sit 1/2" away from the firewall. 

Here is the bracket installed.  The brackets bottom flange rivets to the two existing inboard rivet holes from the old bracket.  The top of the bracket is riveted to the aluminum angle stiffener on the firewall.  The other rivet holes from the old bracket got filled with rivets.

A couple of other things to point out on this bracket.  At the top there (being pointed to) is a flange where I will attach an Adel clamp to hold the parking brake actuator cable.  Near the bottom of the bracket are two holes with nut-plates on the back side.  This is where the Matco parking break will mount.  I still need to put that on and change out the AN brake line fittings that will attach to it.

 
January 13-20, 2007 (2 hrs):

Received several hardware orders over the past week.  I now had the AN fittings required to finish up the parking brake install.

 

Here is the parking brake installed.   I also decided to replace all the brake lines with stainless braided lines that I ordered online from a speed shot, Pegasus Racing.  These lines are AN3 size, and are very light weight.
Here are the new stainless lines on the passenger brakes.
This is a shot of were the lines attach to the brake reservoir mounted to the firewall.  I used a AN3 Tee fitting (threaded, pressure, pressure) and an AN3 swivel elbow.  This seems like a much better solution than the stock Vans nylon lines and fittings.
February 2-4, 2007 (4 hrs):

I decided to not go with the stock panel from Van's.  I wanted something that would be a bit more flexible for changes to the instruments and avionics in the future, and I wanted a slightly taller panel to accommodate large glass screens.  I found a great after market panel provided by Affordable Panels that is modular and 1" taller.

I received my panel order while I was away on my last business trip.  I decided I would try to get the frame installed this weekend and knock another item off my never ending list of tasks.

Here I am match drilling and installing nut-plates in the panel frame.  These plates are used to secure the panel modules to the frame.  I also, slightly modified the panel frame so it to was held into place with nut-plates to the reinforcement angles that will attach to the top deck skin.  This will allow for the removal of the entire panel should I desire to do so.
This is a piece of angle aluminum that gets cut to length, match drilled to the bottom of the panel frame, and then fitted with nut-plates.  When installed on the bottom of the panel, this acts as stiffener.
Here is the modular panel frame cleco'd into position.  Another nice thing about this panel is the cut-outs for the air vents.  This lends itself to a nice clean look. I also ordered some after market aluminum air vents from Affordable Panels.  I just did not like the thought of installing the cheapo plastic vents from Vans.
February 17-19, 2007 (2 hrs):

I worked a bit more on the panel.  The custom air vents need to be fitted.  They attach at two points, directly to the face of the panel and to the sides of the fuselage with some angle aluminum.

 

Here is a picture of the outside of the fuselage where 4 rivets are used to hold the vent angle bracket in place.

 
Here is the vent cleco'd into position for match drilling.  The picture only shows the top left vent attachment hole machine counter-sunk for the AN screws, but the other 3 holes around the vent also get machine counter-sunk.
Here is a picture of the vent from the rear.  Here you can see the angle bracket that is used to secure the vent to the fuselage side skins.
And another shot from the front with the angle bracket riveted into place and the vent secured with screws.

 

 

 

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