I started today with a piece that I can find no mention of in the photo guides. I’m sure it is one of them somewhere but I haven’t found it yet. Anyway, there is a rather hefty strip of metal that goes inside the side channels that acts as a stiffener. The DVD installs this early on and it appears harmless so I found the pieces in the box, drilled a hole and then attached it inside the side channels back drilling through the pre-drilled holes. They end up size 20.
Once drilled, I removed and deburred and primed.
Down each side of the cabin floor is a lower longeron. I clamped them in place on the skin and then back drilled into it through the holes in the floor.
The plans call for an area to be cut out of each end, one 20mm from the edge, and another 120mm.
I used the metal grinder with a cutting tool to do this and since I had it out I went around the remaining untrimmed longerons in the rear fuselage and did my best to get rid of the excess metal, filing smooth afterwards. This allowed me to install the rudder hinges. First the upper hinge on top of fuselage
and then the lower hinge which is actually made of three pieces (there is a shim hidden in there). Most of these holes have to be opened up to a bigger size, looks like I will have to get underneath for that.
I’ve decided to install controls in the order that the DVD says but make sure that the installation process is still the same. I can see that doing some things now before the cabin is assembled will be a lot easier. So, our very first control assembly…. drum roll please……. rudder controls.
In particular the rudder pedals which are attached to the cabin floor by a centre channel bearing
and a lateral channel at each end.
The lateral channels have no predrilled holes but the cabin floor does. You have to find the best position for the channels such that the pedals are parallel to the edge and the channels overlap the holes with enough space for the bolts. I did this by tracing around the edge once it looked like I had a good position.
And both channels drilled to final size.
They both need a bit of trimming before final installation.