Brake Lines Part 2
I continued running the brake lines out to the left and right skins, just aft of the main gear channel. To help with installation, I temporarily attached the reinforcement plates that fit over the skin where the wing attaches, and then drilled 3/8” holes in the reinforcement plates for...
Running Brake Lines
I temporarily assembled the throttle section so that I could place it on the center console to help with determining length of tubing needed. Putting together the parking brake valve was a bit of a pain – for some reason, the kit-provided park valve is BPST threaded, whereas the...
Running Fuel Lines through Fuselage
I mentioned in an earlier post that I decided to go with hard lines for fuel and brake lines. There are definitely a few challenges to accomplish this, since the kit was designed to use rubber tubing , so routing is a little tricky. I’m using 3003 Aluminum Versa-tube...
More Wire Routing
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...
Wiring for Headsets
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...
Tosten Grips Arrived
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...
Center Console Work
I’ve been pretty quiet with blog updates for the last 2 weeks as I’ve been doing a lot of research and planning for upcoming tasks: running wires, fuel lines, and brake lines. I wasn’t planning to have this all figured out by this point in the build, so this...
Rear Floor Skins
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...
Rear Elevator Torque Tube Modification
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...
Goodbye to Plastic Bushings
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...