Attached Instrument Panel and Forward Top Skin

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I fit the instrument panel to the forward ribs and clamped a straight edge to the panel to ensure it was flat, then match drilled the clip to the forward canopy decks.

Next, I fluted all of the substructure to ensure the holes were in line, then fit the top skin in preparation for match drilling it to the structure.

I clamped the firewall flange flush with the forward edge of the skin using the cleco clamps.  I had to adjust the flutes several times to get the edge of the firewall flange to follow the line of the top skin perfectly.

Finally, I match drilled the subpanel, firewall and ribs to the skin.

Fabricated Instrument Panel Stiffener

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The instrument panel has a stiffener that runs along the back side of the top edge.  It’s a piece of 0.063″ angle that’s notched so that it can be bent to follow the curve of the top edge of the panel.  I noticed after taking this picture that the wide flanges near the ends need to be cut off to better help this follow the curve of the panel.  I’ll have to take care of the tomorrow.

Here is a closeup showing the notches and how this allows the stiffener to be bent.

I cut the notches on the band saw and then started filing them smooth.  I was really regretting not buying an air file the last time I was at Harbor Freight, but then I got the bright idea of trying one of my needle files in my jigsaw.  This worked beautifully, and I was able to smooth out the rest of the notches in just a few minutes.

Kids First “Flight”

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We watched our friend’s kids for the evening, and everyone wanted to play in the plane.  My two kids are on the left.  One of the other kids is in the pilot’s seat and the other was too busy drilling scrap aluminum to jump in the plane for the picture.  Needless to say, I didn’t get much work done on the plane tonight.

Forward Fuselage Fabrication and Panel Layout

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I got an order from Van’s today that included the fuel pump cover.  This normally sits higher than this because the forward face of this is vertical and the angled face is more steeply sloped upward.  This provides room for the much larger Airflow Performance fuel pump/filter/check valve assembly.  This configuration won’t work for me because I had to move the fuel pump forward almost 2″ to fit the fuel line between the fuel selector and the fuel filter.  This puts the pump outlet far enough forward that there is no room to allow the fuel line on the outlet side room to turn down and drop under the cover.

I reduced the angle of the bends in the cover, which simultaneously drops the height of the cover down as well as pushes the front end forward enough to make room for the fuel line..  I’ll have to fabricate new side covers from some scrap 0.020″ stock, but that’s pretty trivial.

I started fabricating some of the small components for the forward fuselage out of 0.063″ angle stock, but it’s late and this was making a racket.

Instead, I spent a little more time playing with panel layouts in the plane.  The cockpit is small enough that I can reach every part of the instrument panel from the pilots seat without leaning over (I have really long arms though).  This also means that it’s pretty easy to see everything, regardless of where it is on the panel.  I’ve been planning on going with a single 10″ screen Dynon SkyView system, but lately I’ve been considering trying to fit a dual 10″ screen into the panel.  Even with the 10″ screen, using just one screen for PFD, Map, and engine monitoring can get kind of cramped.  I think dual screens would force me to remove the Dynon D6 that I was planning to use as a backup PFD though.  Although I could add a second ADAHRS box, I’d still be relying on a single overall system which worries me a little bit.