Sunday, August 20th, 2006
Still just picking parts and installing. I wanted to get the painted brake pedals off the bench so I installed them and put together the rudder pedal assembly. I did not install it in the airframe quite yet. I used an AN3-60 bolt for the pedal hinge points as opposed to two bolts that tend to bind upon rotation. The -60 is a bit long so I used a few washers.
I assembled the Andair fuel selector valve on the mount plate with some countersunk AN3 bolts. I previously had this put together with normal AN3 hex bolts but could see that I was going to be scraping my knuckles on the bolt heads. I like this much better.
With the rudder cables installed, it was time to finish up the rear cable exits. I had purchased the exit fairings from some time ago. I cleaned them up and riveted them into place and installed the adel clamp on the guides on the inside.
Next up, I mixed up some of my favorite goo, Proseal. I sealed the firewall recess, heater selector, and brake reservoir assemblies to the firewall, as well as put a little glob of proseal on the static port-tube and faired the rudder exit fairings. Tanya helped me rivet the firewall recess on for good. I only mixed up 20g of proseal and applied with a syringe and still had a lot left over.
I downloaded the installation diagram of the GRT magnetometer which has exact dimensions of its case which I used to fabricate a mounting bracket for it in the rear upper fuselage. My bracket is made out of .032 sheet. The bending brake worked great and helped produce a very rigid assembly. I spent a bunch of time with a level and sight making sure this thing was lined up right in each axis.
I should have an order arriving soon from Vans with some fun stuff to work on: Fire extinguisher mounting, main battery, seat belts and 5th point mount kit.
