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...
Instrument Panel Planning
In addition to working out plumbing for fuel and brakes, I’ve spent a lot of time the last two weeks investigating the various avionics options available. I have to do this now because I haven’t settled on what my avionics suite will be. While most avionics are wired similarly,...
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...
Close-Out Floor Ribs
(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...
Flush Rivet Process
EDIT 8/5/2020: the AK41H rivets identified below won’t work. See my later post regarding the side skin install. Among other things, this past weekend I came up with a tool to dimple the holes where I intend to install flush rivets. I received my supply of AK41H countersunk rivets...
Amphenol Duramate Connectors
During last week’s shopping bonanza, I bought electrical connectors to use for the wing wiring. I decided to go with a product made by Amphenol called Duramate – they are a series of circular connectors available in several sizes and pin configurations that are environmentally sealed, IP67-rated, vibration-resistant, and...
Acquiring Hardware
I haven’t posted in about a week, but I’ve been pretty busy acquiring a bunch of stuff that I’ll need in the coming weeks. I decided it was high time that I think about wiring – so I did, coming up with a few diagrams, wire lists, and connector...