Category: Fuselage

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...

Now that fall has arrived, I have fewer opportunities to prime parts outside, especially during the week, so I occasionally need to prime a part inside my garage. I decided to update my paint booth a bit, adding a suction fan and a filter to control the dust and...

I’m trying to be mindful of which holes to rivet and which holes to leave open as I go through assembly of the fuselage. I’ve gotten to a point where the manual is getting more and more confusing to follow, while various builder blogs I refer to recommend a...

EDIT 8/5/2020: the AK41H rivets identified below won’t work. See my later post regarding the side skin install. Last winter my garage was far too cold to work in, especially during January and February, and the garage doors were too leaky to justify heating the space, which is about...

I prepped a bunch of side channels so that I could start attaching the side skins and firewall. I wanted to at least test fit the side skins (per suggestion from Simon K., who has already finished building his Sling 4) – but then take them off as Ive...

Hopefully this is the last significant update on the torque tubes for a while. A made a few small adjustments to the floor ribs and that seems to have improved the friction issue. There’s still some resistance, but I think that’s unavoidable since there are 4 bushings. I recorded...

With the joysticks done, I turned my attention back to the flap and elevator torque tubes in the center fuselage. I quickly discovered that none of these will go together easily; each bracket that holds a bushing has needed *some* kind of modification so far. For these torque tubes,...