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Home Project News January 20, 2021 Project Log Empennage Horizontal Stabilizer Vertical Stabilizer Rudder Elevators Rudder II Wing Kit Wings Fuel Tanks Ailerons Flaps Fuselage Kit Bulkheads Aft Section Foreward Section Top Fuselage Cabin Finish Canopy Cowling Electrical Firewall Forward Fuel System Engine Baffles Misc Miscellaneous Fiberglass Assembly Panel Finishing Up! FAQ Project Notes Project Summary Guestbook Other Stuff | Finished drilling and fitting all the forward cabin covers. Finished preping and priming that pile of parts I've had around for months, and riveted together a seat back. Finished riveting the other seat back and riveted on most of the fuselage / bulkhead gussets.
Finished riveting the forward fuse gussets, installed the rudder cable fairings and started riveting on the aft deck.
Unpacked and inventoried the finish kit. Finished riveting the aft deck. Hung the canopy from the ceiling, finished the details on the baggage compartment bulkhead.
Installed the flap acutator weldment into the fuse, fabricated all the little angles, brackets and spacers for the flap system and started putting the flap system together
Installed some braces to hold the wire conduit that I installed into the fuselage a little better. Piddled with the flap mechanism a little bit.
Got the wife to help me finish a few rivets that still needed to be done on the bottom of the fuse and piddled around with the flap mechanism a little more. Almost finished the flap acutator mechanism and made the two little flap actuator pushrods.
Installed the flap actuator mechanism into the fuselage. Installed the static ports and tubing in the rear fuselage.
Installed all those bolts in the holes that are left in the spar for main gear mounts on the nose draggers. On the real airplane you just fill the holes with bolts. Also put the little clamps on the little pieces of tubing that hold the rudder cable on the back of the plane. Cleaned the shop up some. Reassembled the flap mechanism with the safety wire that keeps the rod end bearing from twisting. Made a pitot tube out of some thin walled stainless tubing from work and started laying out the placement for it on the wing. Installed the Pitot tube in the left wing and changed the little washers out that go between the bushing halves of the flap center bushing. I also ran the flap motor back and forth several times to make sure that my safety wire installation wouldn't get in a bind.
Cut the elevator push rod tubes to length, cleaned and etched them in preparation for priming the inside. Started trimming the aft end of the fiberglass wing tips. The aft end of the tips stuck out about 3/8" past the the aileron, and both need trimming.
Primed the inside of the elevator push rod tubes. Finished trimming and sanding the wing tip aft edges. That was easier than I thought that it would be. Drilled both of the elevator push tubes to the end pieces and riveted the end pieces to the big tube. I screwed up the little one by only drilling 4 holes in each end instead of 6. I'll call Van's on Monday and see what they say. I most likely will build another one. This is the elevator after all and it's a cheap mistake. Mounted the Tru Trak autopilot servo in the right wing. Played with the new NOVA strobe power supply. What a show! Drilled the holes in the wingtips for the strobe head and the position lights and started fitting the lenses for the wing tip.
Finished up the wingtips.
Finished mounting the autopilot servo in the right wing.
Finished all the little spacers for all of the aileron push tubes. Installed the AOA Sport probes in the right wing, and put a right angle fitting on the pitot tubing where it exits the wing.
Started making another F-789 elevator push tube. I messed the other one up. Finished building the F-789 elevator push tube. Primed all the aluminum push tubes. Drilled the hole in the elevator bellcrank for future installation of a pitch servo on the autopilot. Pressure tested the AOA ports, did a little rewiring on the position lights in the wing tip. Installed the control sticks and the electric aileron trim.
Finished checking the electric aileron trim. Pressure tested the Pitot tubing in the left wing. Mounted the NOVA strobe power supply, and ran the shielded strobe wire down the rear of the fuselage to the tail. I also installed a small aluminum clip to hold the static line under the longeron.
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