Category: Center Fuselage

On Sunday I continued running wires for the fuselage electronics, in particular the autopilot servos and the magnetometer. I also gave some thought about how to secure the wires and created some small brackets so that I could use cushioned clamps inside the center tunnel. The brackets are made...

I began laying out the wires in the center console for the headsets. I’m using lacing cord, spaced every 12 inches, to tie together the wires into a bundle. I’ll do this for other groups of wires too. This is the first time I’ve used lacing cord, and it...

With all the updates I posted yesterday, I forgot to mention that I also bought a pair of Tosten “Military Style” grips. They arrived in the mail yesterday, and they look and feel amazing! Very high quality finish, and the switches have a satisfying feel to them. I ordered...

After attaching the pushrod to my recently-completed rear torque tube assembly, I continued on with next steps on the fuselage. It looked like it was safe to install some of the rear floor skins, so I pulled those off the parts shelf. I’ve already riveted in the vertical close-out...

I decided to modify how the rear/short elevator torque tube is held in place on the floor ribs. After spending hours in previous weeks fiddling with the floor ribs, I just couldn’t find a fit that allowed the tube to turn smoothly. The floor ribs that support the torque...

I really, really dislike the plastic bushings used for the elevator torque tubes, so I decided to design a better way to support the tube. I found a thin section (aka Thinex) ball bearing that fits perfectly over the 1” aluminum tube, and has a small overall diameter that...

(Fuselage manual pg E9) I decided that now was the right time to pin down the close-out ribs that go above the torque tubes. Next step is to install the pushrod linkages, which would block access to the rivets that need to go into the ribs, making it much...