Cabin/Panel Area Riveting

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I came out before work this morning and riveted the outer subpanel sections to the side bulkheads and the ribs.

I was able to use the straight set to shoot solid rivets in all of the holes tying these to the bulkheads.

The side subpanel sections are riveted to the forward ribs using only two flush head rivets to provide a flat space for the hinge bushing block to be installed.

Andre dropped by in the evening and we knocked out the forward and aft canopy decks.  There were only a few challenging rivets where there isn’t much room to buck, but we managed to get solid rivets in every hole without too much pain.  You can see on the other side that we also riveted the fresh air vent brackets to the side of the fuselage.

We also riveted the armrests.  There’s still some give to these, so I don’t want passengers to push down on them when getting out of the plane, but they’re way stronger than the stock Van’s design.

After Andre left, I finished pop-riveting the F-704 cap strips in place.

Primed Forward Fuselage Components

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I primed the subpanel and a bunch of fuselage components using the EkoPoxy primer.

While I had everything undone from the subpanel and forward ribs, I installed nutplates everywhere I’m using screws to attach things to the subpanel.  The ones along the bottom here are to attach adel clamps that support the wiring harness.

I also installed a few on the right rib to support the battery and essential bus blocks.  If I ever have to remove these or any of the adel clamps, it will be much if I don’t have to simultaneously get a wrench on the nut.

Riveted Side Skin and Roll Bar Support

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My buddy Andre stopped by and we riveted the forward ends of the skins that wrap around the rear window.

We then riveted these support plates to the longerons and seat support bulkhead.  The beefy angles I modified yesterday are installed under here to transfer any roll-over loads into the rest of the structure.

The angles are also riveted to the front face of the bulkhead.  We managed to rivet all of the these without removing the latch or the microswitch by using the double offset rivet set.

We also riveted these angles to the front side of the bulkhead to support the canopy latch bellcrank.

Installed Parking Brake Cable

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I installed the parking brake cable tonight.  The cable comes pretty much straight back from the panel and then turns up and is anchored to one of the angles that support the VP-X (seen in the lower right of the photo).  The cable then arcs across the cabin (anchored in the middle to forward top skin center rib).

The cable is then anchored to a piece of 0.063″ angle that is attached to the left subpanel rib.  The angle serves as a mounting point for the cable as well as a stop for the parking brake arm.  Here is the parking brake with the cable full forward which is the off position.

Here is the parking brake on the on position.

Here is how far out the parking brake knob comes with the parking brake on.

More Work on Oil Cooler Plenum

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I trimmed the edges of the large aluminum area washers that surround the vent tube ports on the side of the fuselage.  I then primed and installed them

Finally, I covered the oil cooler plenum and butterfly valve with packing tape so that I can layup some fiberglass over it.  Because of the compound curves of the mold, I had to use a number of narrow strips to avoid wrinkles.

Installed Heater Control Cable

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I installed the heater control box cable tonight.  The control is mounted on the far right of the instrument panel which provides for a fairly easy routing.  The cable curves down over the rudder bars and is attached to one of the firewall support angles with an adel MS21919-WDG3 adel clamp and then passes through a 1/4″ hole in the vertical firewall support angle behind the wire bundle.

The housing will be anchored with another adel clamp to the bolt on the right and the protruding wire will attach to the b-nut on the flapper arm.  There’s no point hooking these up now since the control cable has to be removed when the instrument panel comes out for paint and labeling.

Installed Aileron Pushrod Boots and Gemini Pitot Tubing

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One of the biggest sources of air infiltration in the RV is the large hole in the side of the fuselage that allows the aileron pushrod to exit the fuselage.  When flying at high altitudes, ice cold air comes in through this hole and then comes up through the seat belt attach holes, stick boot hole, etc.  It also makes the seat pans really cold which can make sitting in the plane really uncomfortable.  The solution to this is to install boots around the pushrods to block the air.

I installed the aileron pushrod boots from Classic Aero Design.  These are more expensive than others on the market, but after installing them, I think the extra cost is absolutely worth it.  These are very well designed and really easy to install.  First up is to install the mounting ring.  This is flexed into place so that the foam covered flange tucks between the outer fuselage skin and the adjacent rib.  The ring is then expanded outward until the predrilled holes align.  A couple of pop rivets anchors the rings in place.

Next, a strip of adhesive backed foam is adhered to the outside of the flange.  Notice that the inboard edge of the flange is bent outward slightly.

The boot is then installed over the flange and a zip-tie is used to cinch it down against the foam strip.  The bent edge of the flange keeps the end from popping off the flange.  Once the pushrod is installed for good, another foam strip will be adhered to the pushrod and the inner zip-tie will be used to anchor it.

Finally, I tapped into the pitot tube to run a line up to the Gemini.  I spoke with TruTrak yesterday, and the Gemini PFD has been delayed a couple of months, so they’re going to send me the Gemini ADI which has the exact same mounting holes and wiring/plumbing connections.  Once the PFD is available, I’ll swap the ADI out for it.

Finished Elevator Pushrods and Worked on Vertical Stabilizer

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I finished up the forward elevator pushrod and installed it for good.  Putting the washers between the bellcrank arms and the bearing was a real pain in the ass and required using a washer wrench and looking in a mirror to see what I was doing.  I just noticed that I forgot to add torque seal to the jam nut on the rod end bearing.

I also installed the forward end of the aft elevator pushrod for good.  This didn’t need washers since it uses a larger bearing.

Installing the forward end of the forward elevator pushrod was also a real pain because the aileron interconnect pushrod really gets in the way.  This also needed washers between the forks of the arm, but at least I didn’t have to use a mirror to see what I was doing.

I finished drilling the vertical stabilizer forward spar to the attach bracket and deburred it.

I also epoxied a washer to the forward side of the vertical stabilizer rear spar on the left side since the vertical stabilizer is twisted to the left slightly to counteract the left turning tendency of the airplane.  I also countersunk and installed an AN426 washer in the center hole here since I had to drill out the AN470 rivet I installed there.

When I drilled the bottom of the vertical stabilizer to the tailwheel mount bracket and aft bulkhead, it left some tiny metal shavings between the two pieces.  Fortunately, I had this chip chaser which did a great job of cleaning these out so that the two pieces lay flat against each other.

This is not an airplane part, but the attach point on my inspection mirror finally broke.  I mixed up some epoxy and flox and glued it back together.  This is probably far stronger now than it was originally.

Rigged Elevators

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I finished drilling the aft deck and longerons to the elevator up stop.

I also finished drilling/reaming the forward vertical stabilizer support bracket to the forward spar of the horizontal stabilizer.

The elevator down stop needed quite a bit of material removed to achieve the recommended amount of deflection.

With the up stop manufactured to plans, I get 31.1º of upward deflection (25º-30º is the specified range).  It looks like a number of builders have ended up with slightly more than the 30º limit.

With the adjusted down stop, I can reach 24º deflection from neutral (20º-25º is the specified range).  Since I plan on doing quite a bit of acro, I wanted to get near the upper limit.

Afterward, I adjusted all of the elevator pushrods to length and torqued the jam nuts.

I had to lengthen the servo pushrod from 6″ to 6 3/16″ center to center to put it at 90º to the servo arm when the elevators are neutral.  I also took the opportunity to prime the servo pushrod and torque everything down.  I still have the forward elevator pushrod to do and the final bellcrank connections to install/torque.

More Misc Fuselage Tasks

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My wife and I celebrated our 11 year wedding anniversary tonight.  She had to get up early for work tomorrow though, so I came out to the garage for a few minutes tonight to knock a few tasks off the to-do list.  I got started by crawling under the fuselage and deburring/scotchbriting the flap pushrod holes.

After that, I decided to torque and seal a bunch of the fuselage fasteners that are in for good.  First up, I retorqued the center pushrod jam nuts and sealed them.

Next, I torqued and sealed the bolts that secure the center pushrod to the control sticks.

Finally, I torqued and sealed the bolts that attach the tank attach brackets to the fuselage.