Rear Seat Belts Part 4

This weekend, I took a break from working on my heating system to complete the seat belt mods for the rear seat. Both seating positions now have a retractable 3-point belt. The second one went a little easier than the first, thanks to a few new tricks along the way. For example, I recently joined a FaceBook group devoted to 3D-printed aircraft parts; from there I got the idea to 3D-print a press brake forming die, so that I could make the bends on attachment brackets easily and precisely, with the correct bend radius. Here’s a link to the group if you’re interested in joining:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/756340465159308

3D-printed press brake forming tool makes a precise 100-degree bend, using just a bench vise
Completed shoulder anchor assembly
Installing doublers onto the belt frame, to spread the forward load from the shoulder anchor bracket

With the seat belt parts installed, I was able to finish installing the carpeting in the luggage area. I also figured out what to do with a small longeron that goes just forward of the luggage door, RF-LGN-303-C-C-1. Onto this little longeron you’re supposed to install a support angle for the seat back stop, but there aren’t any pre-drilled holes for it. The seat back stop and support angle are not really mentioned in the build manual, except for page D6, which shows how to perform the modification to move the rear seat forward. So, I clecoed the parts in place, and marked where the bracket should attach the longeron. As you can see in the photos below, only 2 of the 3 holes have anything to attach to.

After completing the belt install, I installed more of the carpeting. RF-LGN-303 is installed right behind the belt in this picture.

With the seat belts now done, I’m getting close to installing the side skins, a major milestone towards getting the fuselage on wheels. I decided to do another test fit of the skin, with all the bracing jigs in place, and make sure there weren’t any obvious fit issues. Everything looked pretty good, except that my joysticks once again became stiff to move in the roll direction – you can read about my previous dealings with this mechanism (and here’s part 2). Luckily, I only had to make a slight adjustment to the securing brackets beneath the wing spar carry-through, and didn’t have to completely take it apart. The bracket has slotted holes, so it has some fore-aft adjustment, which is all that was needed to relax the friction.

Framing braces installed
Starboard skin loosely fastened
This is the bracket I needed to adjust to loosen the grip on the joystick

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