I was actually at the hangar for a LOT longer than 2 hours but most of the time was spent in frustration getting nowhere, so it doesn’t count.
My aim for this weekend was to have a go at rigging the elevator control cables, something entirely new since I’ve never made cables before or rigged them up to something that if I get wrong would probably kill me.
The control tube and the cables attach via this bellcrank, the lines are there to let you know when it is in the neutral position (they will be perpendicular to the cables)
The photo guide talks about having to trim and cut a notch in the end of the control tube so that the control stick is in the position that you want. Cutting notches into narrow tubes is definitely not my thing so I was very pleased to see that there is a new design that uses this very long screw to set the stick position.
Where the bellcrank meets the control tube I slipped on a washer each side and drilled a hole for a cotter pin. I then saw that the plans call for the same on the torque tube where the bellcrank attaches. The torque tube has been inside the plane for a long time and there’s no way to drill that hole inside the plane so I had to pull it back out. Except I couldn’t. No matter what I tried I could not get it out the last few inches.
I pulled, I pushed, I hit it with hammers, I got under the plane and kicked hard but all I was able to do was move the plane back and forwards. My next plan was to remove the four bolts holding the torque tube bearing in place and bring the whole thing forward where I could wrestle it all apart. I was able to get one bolt removed but there’s no way to hold a spanner on the head while using another on the nut. So without a second person I had to give up. All for a lousy cotter pin, though I can see that this one is a little important.
So I moved on to trying my hand at some cables. The video shows you how to set up the swaging tool in a vice so you can use it on your own.
It is very fiddly getting the pieces together to get them into the tool. After quite a while I realise that the best way is to get the nico press in the tool, then run the cable in and use some clamps to get it taut enough for crimping.
Knowing that I was bound to screw this up a lot I had bought some spares from Aircraft Spruce to practice on. A good job, too, considering the quality of my first couple of tries.
To confirm the quality of your work, there is a swaging gauge that you put your crimped nico press into and if it fits then you live! If it doesn’t, then not so much.
(looks like the camera thought my hand was the important thing)
After a bit I had my first two cables made – these go from the bellcrank to the cable that comes from the elevator.
These actually aren’t bad but suffer from a couple of problems. First I think they are too long – ideally you want the cable join to be very close to the access panel opening so they are easy to make. But most importantly I forgot to put a shackle on the ends of each cable where it attaches to the bellcrank. So they will have to be discarded or, rather, I will cut the current open end off and put the shackle on – this way I won’t waste the parts I have, and the bridle length will be shortened (but hopefully not too much).
Turning my attention to the back of the plane I noticed that the attachment holes for the cables had not been drilled out and, of course, it is near impossible to do the bottom one with the elevator attached to the stabiliser. So I had to take it off. But before doing that I marked the position of the upper stop that I had not yet installed. After removing the elevator I could install the stop.
The attach brackets on the ends of the elevator take a washer each side of the pin and are then protected by a cotter pin.
Those were tricky holes to drill. I couldn’t get my punch to make a mark and the 1/16″ drill bit just slides all over. I located the proper hardware for mounting the elevator to the stab – there is a bushing that goes in the hole, and then a washer each side of the bolt – but was then quickly reminded how hard it is to join these two on your own when the plane is on its front wheel. So I gave up.
Final act of the day was to lay out some control cable most the length of the plane and cut two pieces that would form the cable from the tail to the bellcrank.
At one point in the afternoon, a guy came by to take a look at what was going on. He had taken apart and rebuilt an Aeronca Champ so was very interested in another build, said it took him five years. He had a good look around and complimented me on “some good looking work”. I thanked him and gave his seeing eye dog a rub on her tummy. Seriously, it is nice to have someone with experience come and not run screaming at how I’m going to die.
After getting home, I texted an SOS to my wife’s Uncle to see if he can come out next weekend to assist with the day’s various problems. Hopefully he can come out and lend some intelligence to the problems that my hammer and fists couldn’t sort out.