Today Allen came over to help finish the elevator control cables. With the elevator in neutral (and during the rigging we made the elevator more neutral than I had made it previously), the control cables are properly rigged when the lower cable is perpendicular to the line drawn on the bellcrank.
So I kept tightening, clamping and checking until we thought we had it right. By removing the shackles off the elevator we could get enough slack under the fuselage to swage the cables at the bellcrank end.
Hooking up the control rod to the control stick allowed us to watch the cable motion inside the fuselage at different up, down, left and right positions and you can very clearly see that they interfere with each other. For this purpose, Zenith provides a bungee cable to hook one (or both) of the cables out of the way.
Now, if Allen hadn’t been here I’d still be scratching my head how to put that cable together – there was the cord, the spring looking things and some small half ring metal pieces and I had no clue what to do with.
The bungee will do the most good the further back it is in the fuselage, where the cables cross) but with everything sealed up we aren’t going to be able to get it down the back. Being the much slighter gent, Allen volunteered to get inside the access hole and put the bungee in place on the second l-angle back, where it would still work.
There should be a mark in the photoguides “do this much earlier or small child required”.
With everything tight we checked out how the cable was running outside the fuselage and saw a few places of concern. Here, under certain positions the cable is rubbing on the bottom left of the hole.
We solved this by taking one of the discarded rudder outlet fairings and used it to both raise the height of the cable and to guide it straight so that it doesn’t wander left or right.
There was also a problem where the cable exits the stabiliser
Here, at full up the cable and connector catch the lip of the stabiliser. Another cannibalised piece of rudder plastic should take care of that.
And that was that for the elevator cables. After Allen left I had a lot of fun playing with the control stick and seeing the elevator go up and down. Sometimes it is the little things that bring us joy! I’m not entirely sure of the tension yet, may have to do a little more tightening before it is finally put to bed. The whole assembly is missing cotter pins, safety ties etc, too.
I have Allen for one more day before he does the smart thing and leaves the Valley for cooler temperatures and we decided we would work on the windshield (I like this because there is cutting involved and I do not like that scary tool!). So as to not waste our time next week, I filed down the top corner of the windshield so that it would fit properly on the frame.
I tried slipping the windshield trim on but it doesn’t want to stay on at all. That might require a one time install with the glue, have tried twice now and failed miserably.
I’m not sure if I installed the top window too far forward (though the rear looks to me in the right position) or it just comes too large but the front edge interferes with the top of the windshield so it is going to have be trimmed. I tried filing it but it is just too much. It looks right to me but I am sure I did it wrong.
Before I left I wanted to do something on the firewall side so I marked and drilled the oil can mount
and after riveting, the oil can attached to it. It’s just in there loosely for now.
The install video suggests taking care of a few things before the engine so I’m hoping to tick one or two of them off every now and again.
Beautiful weather this weekend, only in the mid-80s, it would be nice to think I’ll get some extra cool weekends in the hangar but I’m sure it was just a blip.