I had been looking forward to this weekend for a while now. This was the weekend when I finally attached the HS, VS, and Tailcone together for the first time and got to get a good look at what my airplane would look like! (At least the back half!)
Leading up to this weekend I did a little pre-work on the pushrod, but never got enough time to get it primed (so didn’t rivet it together).
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Saturday I enlisted the assistance of my wife to move the tailcone and HS out of the garage so I could move my workbench for the tailcone to sit on. She then helped me position the tailcone on the bench and I was able to lift and position the HS onto the tailcone. I realized earlier that I should invest in a #12 reamer as well as some 3/16 clecos and luckily enough they arrived in time for me to use them this weekend. I ended up drilling all of the #12 holes with a #19 drill. I then final drilled them with my #12 reamer (using the 3/16 clecos to hold things together). No scientific evidence that this produces a “better” hole, at least not that I have done, but I like the look and finish of the reamer so that’s what I’m doing. (YMMV).
Before I went to attach the first elevator I was trying to figure out the best way to prevent the whole assembly from tipping from the unbalanced weight of a single elevator. Finally decided to use a ratchet strap over the opposite side of the HS tied to my bags full of clecos. The bags were heavy enough to prevent a tipping motion, and the strap wouldn’t get in the way when I went to attach the other elevator. Just make sure you do something or you may end up having a bad day.
This time I decided to make a quick helper tool to attach the elevators from some spare romex electrical cable. Snipped a small length and bent the insulated conductors into a “Z” pattern to hold the elevator in place as I attached the bolts. Worked well enough and once the elevators were attached it was time to check the travel again. The left side elevator (for me) had plenty of down travel (more than 25 degrees), but didn’t quite have enough up elevator travel (less than 28 degrees). I started small, and finally got a dremel tool out with a drum sander to grind away the back elevator stop enough to get at least 30 degrees travel. I think the left side ended up with 30.8 degrees, so I was happy. Same process to attach the right elevator, but it only needed minor sanding to get the full 30 degrees up elevator. I also needed to sand the other stop as I was just shy of 25 degrees elevator down.
Once that was done, and I confirmed I had the necessary travel on both sides, I went to attach the rudder (after screwing the bolts in off-camera). Everything just fit in the garage, but when I measured rudder at full deflection I have too much deflection (measured 1-1/2″ between rudder and trim tabs vs the 2-3/16″ the plans call for. Looks like I’ll need to dismount the rudder and adjust the rod end bearing inward a turn or two. For a moment I thought I was going to luck out with getting these adjustments correct on the first go.
Looking forward, I am not planning to install the trim cables until final assembly. I would like to get the elevator pushrod put together and installed /adjusted prior to disassembly and storage. I’m also debating some prep work on the fiberglass parts. Marking and drilling the elevator fairings and the rudder fairings. I’m also debating if I’m going to install nutplates on the rudder bottom fairing, or if I’ll just install a small length of conduit for my tail strobe. I have the tail light adapter ring from Cleaveland Tool, and plan on putting in the FlyLeds lighting system as it stands right now. Weather has made any thoughts of doing fiberglass work in my unheated garage a non-starter. By the time the weather is nicer, I should be fully involved with the wings so it seems like all the fiberglass stuff is going to have to wait for final assembly.
I also decided to start a ToDo list of all the items that I’m skipping or things that need to be re-done for final assembly to ensure that I’m not missing anything. I’m also looking at more containers to better organize my nuts, bolts, and washers since I’m spending way too much time trying to track down what bag a part is in. (or does this mean the skinny washer or the thicker washer stuff).
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