| day |
notes |
hours |
| 1 |
Collect LAS Aerospace order from Post Office - apparently we didn't hear the doorbell on Saturday morning. Cut remaining part of FL25 to 75mm length. Mount in milling vise with spacer underneath to keep working depth clear of jaws. Mill from original 12mm to about 10mm thick. Remove from vise and try for size: cables are over 4mm clear of frame each side. Take another 1.3mm off, leaving it at 8.7mm thick, and that leaves both cables more than 3mm clear of the frame. Chamfer top and bottom ends, orientated to leave the original shiny side out as the rubbing surface. Bandsaw into 2 off 10mm wide strips (leaving an offcut about 3.5mm wide). Lightly chamfer fore and aft edges. Mix some Araldite 2012 and bond port rubbing strip in place. Araldite gells faster than expected so clean it off starboard strip with acetone and knife, and check thickness again. Mix fresh batch, apply to rubbing strip and position a bit quicker this time. Replace AN3-13A bolts in port guide block with AN3-14A and fit stiffnuts with a drop of grease. Degrease ends and apply a dab of inspector's lacquer. |
1529.3 |
| 2 |
Consider the fuel system components again, wondering if the AN826-4D elbow is the best way to connect the fuel pressure sensor and the return line with restrictor. Consider using a Speedflow 5000-TPI NPT tee piece but it is steel; or an AN917-1D tee, to allow an AN840-4D adaptor on the return line for the Europa-supplied fuel hose. However, note that Speedflow quote both 0.22" (=5.6mm) and 3/16" (=4.8mm) for the 100-04 hose ID. It may be possible to push the restrictor into that instead of having to use a short section of the Europa IH-000 6mm bore hose. If necessary, it might be possible to turn down the OD of the restrictor in the lathe, or even machine up a complete new one, to suit the Speedflow hose. Remove temporary nuts retaining rudder pedal return springs. Close the end loops of the springs to a snug fit on CR9 & FL10. Re-assemble with greased stiffnuts. Clean off grease and apply a dab of inspector's lacquer to each. |
1529.9 |
| 3 |
Remove the aluminium fuel line from the selector valve for better access to the rudder cable pulleys, and cover the end with tape. Cap the exposed port on the valve. Remove nut from starboard pulley mounting bolt and re-arrange washers from original 3 each side. First try an extra next the the tunnel wall so it's 5 washers, pulley, 1 washer. This gets the cable clear of the tank in the tunnel but I'd like a bit more clearance so move all 6 washers to tunnel side of pulley and add another AN960-10 under the nut. That looks fine now. On the port side the cable is well clear of the tank but I'd like a bit more clearance between pulley and tunnel for access to the head of the bolt for the seatbelt, so remove port pulley nut and re-arrange washers as 4 on tunnel side and 2 on outside of pulley. The multiple washers on the outside of the pulley are needed to prevent the nut becoming threadbound. Once satisfied, replace plain nuts with greased stiffnuts, clean up & apply inspector's lacquer. Remove (with some acrobatics involving adjustable spanners and toolmakers clamps to restrain the bolt heads I can't reach while working on the nuts) the plain nuts from the bolts in the bottom tubes of the LG01 frame and replace with stiffnuts. Start to do the ones in the top tubes and decide access would be better from the front than the underside, so lower fuselage onto wooden dolly and remove lifting device from engine mount points. Much easier to get at them, and I can reach both bolt & nut, but difficult to remove the nuts as Redux has crept into the threads. Eventually get them all out and have to clean up the bolt threads by warming them with a heat gun then running a plain nut up & down to remove the softened Redux. Clean off some lumps of Redux that are stopping the washers seating flat on the tubes. Fit remaining greased stiffnuts. Remove plain nuts from CS21s and replace with greased stiffnuts. Wipe all stiffnuts clean with acetone and apply inspector's lacquer. |
1533.7 |
| 5 |
Make card templates 90mm & 290mm wide and use them to mark centre of lower aft fuselage access hole. Get baggage bay rear bulkhead out of trailer to check position of aft end to battery/fuel pump compartment. Put fuel pipe in its installed position and cut it at aft end of that compartment (obviously can't need it longer than that). Seal open ends with insulating tape. Remove plastic jug from rear fuselage and coil rudder cables on fuselage floor, securing the coil with stiff insulated wire. Tape a piece of card to rear bulkhead and on it mark a point 5" up from the fuselage inner skin. Project sideways to bulkhead using a torpedo level. Check fit of rudder mod mounting bracket on that line - as expected, some trimming of the ends will be needed. |
1534.7 |
| 6 |
Mark access hole circle on centre already established, using a fine felt-tip pen in draughtsman's compass. |
1534.9 |
| 8 |
Check latest instructions for Mod 77 from factory website about reinforcement of rear bulkhead. Wish I'd seen that BEFORE I made the rear bulkhead as it would have been really easy to incorporate the ply hard-points then. Never mind, remove TS05 link rod assembly for better access. Assemble finger-tight the Mod 77 brackets and bellcrank. Try for size against bulkhead. File ends of lower bracket to match inside profile of fuselage at correct mounting height. Lightly clamp the assembly in place with small G-cramps and mark upper and lower extremities of the brackets on the bulkhead. Fit 3mm router bit to MiniCraft drill (as Dremel is just too long for this job) and rout out brown foam between upper and lower marks. Check that a small piece of 3mm ply will now fit between the glass surfaces of the bulkhead. Clean up the edges of the slots with a Perma-Grit 3mm spar slotter. Vacuum up the dust and blow out the slots with the air line. Cut pieces of 3mm ply to fit each side & mark P & S. Check BID needed and mark out 4 off 50mm x 150mm rectangles on bits of polyethylene sheet. It's 26C, 47% RH with the main garage door open so will not need extra heat for curing today! Cut 4 off BID pieces 50mm x 150mm and lay on polyethylene sheets. Start to mix epoxy, but there are bubbles in the hardener flow so discard that part-mix and clean out the cup. Tilt the pump so that both tank outlets are fully immersed and mix 4 strokes epoxy (much more than really needed). Pour onto BID pieces and pour some of remainder into separate mixing cup; add small amount of flox to stiffen it up a bit. Abrade bonding areas. Apply flox to slots in bulkhead and to ply inserts with mixing stick. Slide ply pieces into slots in bulkhead and wipe off excess flox squeezed out. Apply the BID strips in turn and peel-ply each one, stippling out well and adding extra layers of peel-ply because BID was a bit over-wetted. Mask off end fitting on TS05 link rod and clean off slight rust marks with fine ScotchBrite wheel. Hang up by fork end & degrease with acetone. Spray 2 coats etch-primer and 2 coats appliance white. |
1539.4 |
| 10 |
Remove peel-ply from rear bulkhead reinforcement layups. Padsaw trim edges and file flush with edges of bulkhead aperture. Check fit of bellcrank brackets - no further fettling needed. Original marked line for top edge of lower bracket has disappeared with abrading and degreasing etc. Tape a piece of card to the forward face of the bulkhead and mark a spot on it 5" up from fuselage inner skin. Project that sideways onto the bulkhead using a torpedo level. Clamp brackets in place, sighting forward to the top edge of the cockpit module above the fuel tank to confirm that they are also level with that. Put clamps on 3 of the mounting positions. At the 4th, use a felt-tip pen spaced away from the fuselage side by a piece of wood to mark a line on the forward face of the bulkhead parallel to the fuselage side and far enough away from it to allow fitting a AN970-3 washer. Mark by eye a horizontal line in the middle of flat part of the bracket. As it's too close to the fuselage side to get a normal chuck in there, and not enough width for the Tight-Fit attachment in the cordless drill, start to drill with a 4mm hex shank bit in a hex extender, then remember that the Tight-Fit drill kit has a long straight extension piece, so switch to using that with a #10 bit to bring the hole to the correct size. Fit bolt, washer & plain nut to keep it in place. Remove one of the clamps and repeat the mark/drill/bolt sequence. Repeat again for the other 2 holes. Dismantle bracket assembly and fit anchor nut to one hole with a short 10-32 screw. Have to run a nut onto the screw first to keep it out of the stiff part of the anchor nut. As the TAPK33BS rivets fit easily in the anchor nuts and are nominally 2.8mm diameter, expect to use a 2.8mm drill bit - but the biggest that will fit in the anchor nut wings is 2.4mm. So, drill through with that. Countersink the forward face of the bracket and pull the rivets to fit the anchor nut. Repeat for other 3 mounting points. Realise too late I've forgotten to apply Duralac before fitting the anchor nuts. Assemble brackets and bellcrank using Duralac on all mating surfaces and fitting stiffnuts. Clean off excess Duralac with white spirit. Apply inspector's lacquer to the stiffnuts. Inject a drop of grease into the stiffnut threads, and grease the bolts and washers. Mix a couple of strokes of epoxy, tilting the pump forward again to minimise bubbles, and add a couple of doses of flox. Use a mixing stick to butter the mixture onto the aft face of the bulkhead at the mounting points. Poke 1 bolt, fitted with its washer, through the bulkhead for location and offer up the bracket assembly. Finger-tighten that bolt, then fit other bolts with washers and tighten them all up. Wipe off some excess flox mixture that has squeezed out. 24C, 55% RH so no heat needed for cure. Fit AN115-8 shackles to bellcrank with AN960-10L washers and MS24665-140 split pins. The shackles are quite a tight fit on the bellcrank and need to be sprung apart slightly to slide on. Fit AN100-C4 thimbles to shackles (should have done that before attaching shackles to bellcrank). Unreel rudder cables and loop each around bellcrank area leaving a generous tail with no tension in the cables. Apply a couple of turns of masking tape at the point to be cut and cut through with Dremel cut-off disc. Coil up the spare ends for later use & put them in box 13. Put a 30mm length of Maplin BF89 5mm heatshrink sleeve on each of the rudder cables, then thread each one through a 428-3VG Nicopress sleeve, around the thimble and back through the Nicopress sleeve. Retain in place with a few turns of masking tape. |
1542.9 |
| 11 |
Look in Homebase for 1/8" cable clamps (to secure rudder cables while adjusting length before crimping Nicopress sleeve), but they only have 1/4". However, find some spring clamps with soft ends that seem to have very firm grip and might do the job, so buy a couple. They do seem to have a pretty good grip (although probably won't actually stop it slipping in extremis), but are a bit big for the available space and are catching on things as the cables move. |
|
| 12 |
Get some Eliza Tinsley 1/8" wire rope grips at B&Q. Fit one to each rudder cable instead of the spring clamps, and also fit an extra one on each free end to prevent any disastrous runaway. Check clearances of rudder pedal system. Adjust starboard cable a bit to take up slack and then find I can't get full travel (ie rear bellcrank hitting stops) that side. The bottom corner of CS21 touches LG01 at one end of travel and the Nicopress sleeve touches LG01 at the other end. Looking at the original marks for making the holes in the side faces of the firewall for the rudder pedals, I can see that the forward shaft is aft of its intended position by about maybe a millimetre. To change that would require hacking out the footwell floors again and re-building the whole assembly which is not an attractive prospect! Instead, more free travel can be provided by tightening the cable loop around the thimble. Slacken the loop at the rear end to give maximum free length. Dismantle the starboard cable connexion to CS21 and cut the cable at the sleeve. Cut the loop to free the thimble, and trim the birdsmouth ends off the thimble (as suggested in AC43 chapter 7 para 148 c). Re-make the loop with the sleeve tight up against the thimble. After re-assembling connexion to CS21, problem appears to be solved - can hit the bellcrank stops in both directions without the sleeve or CS21 touching LG01. Adjust port cable length to get bellcrank at neutral with pedals aligned. The return springs have different tensions at this point, so need to weigh down the starboard pedal slightly to keep the pedals neutral while going aft to check the bellcrank position. Notice just before quitting for the night that the newly-compressed nicopress sleeve has only a very short length of free end protruding. It appears safe according to my interpretation of AC43, but will need to check if that will pass inspection under LAA regime. Find that Minitool spares are now available from Kaleas in Germany so order a couple of diamond-coated jigsaw blades. |
1545.6 |
| 15 |
Take a photo of the nicopress sleeve with minimal free end protrusion. Send e-mail to a couple of local inspectors asking if it is likely to be rejected. To check how easy it will be, start to cut around the 4" diameter hole marked on the rear fuselage. Graham Singleton's method of tapping gently on the back of a Stanley knife blade works fine. Drain the remaining resin and hardener from the pump into 2 carefully-positioned mixing cups. Put some acetone in the reservoirs and pump it through to flush everything. Cut 4 pieces of BID 200mm square and trim the corners to make octagons. Lay them on a piece of polyethylene sheet at 45 degrees alternately. Using a plumb bob and a rule, transfer the position of the 4" circle from the outside to the inside of the fuselage. Mark an 8" circle concentric with it. Apply wax to that circle and some distance around it. Buff up with soft cloth. Check the the 1-cup balance is swinging freely and clear some obstructions around it. Mix a 90gm (peg 5) batch of epoxy (intended to be peg 2, 45gm, but poured too fast!). Wet out BID. Trim polyethylene sheet close around BID and apply to inside of fuselage at marked place. Roll off polyethylene sheet. Stipple BID well down and apply peel-ply. 28 C, 37% RH. Only now realise the hole on the outside of the fuselage should be 5" diameter, not the 4" that I have started to cut! It's the hole in the flange that is 4". Ah well, will have to do some more filling and finishing on the outer surface of the cover plate later. Get out the draughtsman's compass again and mark a new circle at 2.5" radius. Notice in CPC catalogue ATO & ATM blade fuseholders with LEDs to show blown fuses at much lower price than the Buss ones from Airworld. No dimensions, so order a 10-way one of each for comparison. Replies from inspectors say my cable loop termination probably is safe, but might raise eyebrows at a future inspection. So, disconnect the starboard shackle from the bellcrank to give more free length, dismantle connexion to CS21 and cut off thimble loop. Slide a 30mm length of 5mm heatshrink sleeve onto the cable, then re-make the thimble loop again, double-checking for free end protrusion as well as tightness to thimble. After compression of the sleeve, there is about one cable diameter protruding which should keep everyone happy. Offer up the heatshrink but with such a relatively short free length I think it's not needed so cut it off. Re-connect shackle and check for full free travel. Note that the starboard cable now appear to be rather close to the screws of the clips securing the outlet to the fuel tank - will need to investigate that more later. Takes several iterations to get the length right and, with less length to play with, it's easier to take the shackle off the bellcrank than to adjust the wire rope grip in-situ, but eventually get it so that the bellcrank hits both stops without either the nicopress sleeve or the bottom of CS21 fouling the LG01 frame. Neutral position now not quite right so port cable will need further adjustment too. |
1549.2 |
| 16 |
10-way fuse blocks arrive from CPC. Both the standard (ATO) & mini (ATM) are the same footprint as the 10-way Buss version that I got from Airworld. Without its translucent cover, the CPC one weighs about 95g compared to 80g for the Buss one, but the advantage of LEDs to show blown fuses outweighs (!) that 15g penalty. |
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| 17 |
Diamond-coated blades arrive from Kaleas. Take small curing tent base off fuselage and fit lifting handle to LG01. Lift onto box on top of stool as before and roll wooden dolly as far out of the way as possible. Crawl underneath to reach fuel drain access hole. One Jubilee clip screw on the starboard tank fitting is just touching the starboard rudder cable. Slacken and remove both Jubilee clips on starboard tank outlet. Re-fit in reverse so screws are outboard of the fitting, well out of the way of the rudder cable, and re-tighten. No action needed at port side as cable well clear of clip screws. Lower fuselage onto dolly again. Mark 4 holes on 4.5" PCD round rear fuselage lower access hole and drill through them with 1.5mm bit. Remove peel-ply from flange layup and drill holes out to 4.8mm. Carefully insert knife blade under edge of flange layup and prise it off - comes off perfectly clean. Degrease the layup and the mating area of the inside fuselage skin with liberal amounts of acetone. Drill small starter holes and try one of the new diamond blades in the Minitool jigsaw. Cuts nearly as fine a slot as using the knife-and-hammer technique and is much quicker. Stop cutting out cover plate after about a quarter-circle in case it's still needed for alignment. Fit 4-off MS21047-3 anchor nuts to flange layup with temporary short screws in the usual way. Drill through fixing holes with 2.5mm bit. Countersink holes and fit TAPK33BS rivets. |
1550.9 |
| 19 |
Clamp flange layup to inside of fuselage using short screws in the anchor nuts. Drill 4 off 3.3mm holes for clecos, outside the cover plate diameter. Remove flange. Complete cutting out cover plate with diamond-coated blade in the Minitool jigsaw. Using both circular-saw style and end-mill style tools in Dremel, remove the brown foam around the edges of the hole in the fuselage and the cover plate, going deeper at hole positions. Trace outline onto flange layup with felt-tip pen. Find centre of that circle and on that centre scribe a 2" radius. Drill small starting holes just inside it and cut around that 4" diameter circle with the jigsaw. Degrease the flange plate and the inside of the fuselage. Mix a peg-1 (30g) batch of epoxy and add about 3 doses of flox to make it non-slump. Butter it into the edges of the hole and the cover plate with a mixing stick and wipe off excess. Mix 28g Redux and spread onto flange bonding area, keeping it outside the marked 5" diameter circle. Offer up flange to inside of fuselage and hold in position while inserting a well-greased cleco. Add greased washer on inside and set cleco. Repeat for the other 3 clecos. Wipe off some excess Redux that has squeezed onto the cover plate opening. 25C, 51% RH. |
1553.2 |
| 20 |
 25C, 50% RH; Redux set firm; remove clecos and washers from flange. Drill out holes in cover plate where flox has blocked them, taking care to maintain the original hole centres. Fit the cover plate using short screws as usual. Roll lower fuselage on wooden dolly out onto front drive and wedge wheels to stop it rolling back into garage. Roll trailer forward to make room for unloading. Take out boxes etc in front of fuselage upper moulding, plus propeller and rudder from rear. Lift upper fuselage moulding (3D Mouldings serial XS283) out of trailer and round onto front drive. Find I can place it on top of lower fuselage moulding without too much difficulty. When I turn around to check the build manual, a light gust of wind catches the fin and swings the whole thing sideways and whacks the end of the tailplane torque tube into the side of the car, which was not needed! Re-position into wind and re-wedge wheels. Check fit of mouldings and look at where things need to be trimmed. There is very little overlap of the angled flanges just forward of the fin, but that should get better with fettling. Draw lines to show where the upper moulding needs to be trimmed in that area, before realising that there are trim lines moulded in. Will want to do that trimming as late as possible, since it will reduce the strength of that area considerably and introduce a stress riser with the relatively sharp corner. For safety, will probably need 2 people handling it after that trim. Remove top moulding, take a triangular cut off both sides of the containment bulkhead and re-fit top moulding. Considerably better, but need a bit more off. Trim to about a total of 10mm off the aft edge, tapering to nothing at the forward edge. That fits much better and is pleasingly parallel to the inside of the fuselage top skin. Next chamfer the forward face of the rear bulkhead at the top and that also makes the fit slightly better. Angled flanges not yet fully overlapping, but better than before. Have a look at the roof areas for the top-hat layups. will need pieces of foam about 25mm and 45mm thick by 30mm wide and 200mm long. Would be a nice to do those layups with the moulding upside down for easy access; that would require some sort of support of the rear part of the moulding, forward of the fin. Leave top on fuselage and roll it all back into garage. Have to take it much further in than before so that the fin will clear the door in transit. Load propeller, rudder, boxes etc back into trailer and return it to its usual parking position. |
1555.6 |
| 22 |
Roll fuselage on wooden dolly out onto front drive for better access. Mark position of access and viewing holes on upper moulding. Fix a felt-tip pen onto the end of piece of aluminium tubing and use it to mark the outline of the containment bulkhead on the inside of the upper fuselage skin. Take the old perished (because stored outside) carpet off the shorter wing sling and fit a new short piece of carpet to it for supporting the rear of the upper fuselage moulding upside-down. Check rudder bellcrank neutral - seems pretty good now but decide not to compress the nicopress sleeves just yet - given how fiddly it is to adjust the cable lengths, it might be a good idea to fit turnbuckles. Check fit of fuselage top moulding on rear bulkhead and mark where trimming needed. Remove the top and file as needed with a Perma-Grit block. Try it again and the fit is now much better around the top of the bulkhead. The full afternoon sun is just bright enough to see the marked access & viewing hole outlines from the inside, even through the foam. Trace the hole outlines on the inside skin. Mark larger concentric circles for the flange layups. Turn the fuselage top moulding upside-down and rest it on the modified sling. Put another piece of carpet under the forward end to minimise scarring. Bandsaw a couple of foam pieces to 30mm thick and trim them by trial & error to fit between the forward and aft door frame mouldings. Wax and buff off the flange layup areas inside the upper fuselage moulding. Stick some pieces of polyethylene sheet on the lower fuselage moulding flange where the layups will overlap. Cut BID squares, 4 off 200mm and 4 off 165mm. Trim corners to make octagons and lay them out on to of each other at 45 degrees alternately, on pieces of polyethylene sheet. Mix a peg-3 (60g) batch of epoxy and wet out layups. Only just enough - none left for a sample. Apply each layup to the appropriate area, peel off the polyethylene sheet, stipple out well and add peel-ply. Carefully put fuselage top half back onto bottom half trying not to disturb layups and then realise I've put the protective polyethylene pieces on the port side instead of starboard! Decide to ignore that problem as it's getting late. Put everything away again, this time parking the fuselage with the tail end in and the firewall next to the door, which gives better clearance for the door closing. 28C, 48% RH with no heating needed. |
1561.4 |
| 23 |
25C, 51% RH. Layups cured. Mark and drill for holes for clecos (3.3mm) and fixing screws (4.8mm) around the access and viewing holes in the upper fuselage moulding. Remove peel-ply and prise layups off fuselage inner skin. Trim flanges to remove ragged edges. Thoroughly degrease the bonding areas on both fuselage & flange layups with acetone. Measure the size of BID required for the top-hat layups between the door frames. Mark out & cut BID, 3 off 150mm x 275mm and 3 off 190mm x 290mm. Lay them on pieces of polyethylene sheet. Mix a peg-5 (75g) batch of epoxy and start to wet out both BID sandwiches - not quite enough to fully wet both layups. Mix a peg-3 (60g) batch of epoxy and finish wetting-out BID. Add 3 doses flox to remainder of epoxy and spread onto bottom & ends of blue foam pieces. Put them in place then lower the appropriate BID sandwich onto each one, centred on foam both ways. Fold the layup down onto the plain side. Peel off polyethylene sheet and stipple BID into place, gradually working it into the corners of the hinge mouldings. Add peel-ply in many small pieces. Carefully lift fuselage top moulding onto bottom half & roll back into garage. 23C, 64% RH, so set fan heater inside fuselage at half-heat on thermostat 3.5. |
1564.4 |
| 24 |
28C, 39% RH. Turn off fan heater. Have a look at the layups through the door apertures and while the aft one doesn't look too bad, the forward one is not attached to the surrounding structure in places. I thought I had stippled it pretty well into position, but maybe it drooped after I turned the moulding over. Anyway the result is that at least the forward one will have to be re-made, and probably the aft one too as there are places I'm not sure about on it as well. The underlying cause, I think, is that I pre-wetted all 3 layers together and the stack of layers would not then easily conform to the complex shape desired. Must remember in future - the pre-wetting approach is only good for multiple layers where they will be laid up essentially flat or around a simple inside corner. Phone Martin Carolan to see if he can come and inspect the problem (and the remaining other fuselage items) and recommend an approach to fixing it but alas! he has ceased being an inspector. Check list of other LAA inspectors locally & leave phone messages for the 2 nearest. Check turnbuckle parts and order from LAS Aerospace the parts to make a pair, plus some spare thimbles and nicopress sleeves, and a few crimp terminals in different ring sizes to see if they are all the full metal sleeve type. |
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| 25 |
Advertise the fuseholders from Airworld without LEDs, plus the mini blade one, on the LAA bulletin board. Order more LED-equipped fuseholders, and a few panel-mount individual ones from CPC. Return to the CADintosh drawing of the switches on the stick top. Develop it a bit more, checking for nut-tightening clearances etc and figuring out how to actually machine the thing once designed. Looks like I will need a long-reach slot drill to mill the nut clearances in the centre rib, so order one from Chronos. Still no response from either of the inspectors - maybe they're on holiday. |
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| 26 |
CPC & LAS Aerospace orders arrive. Assemble the turnbuckles to see how they go, and it looks as though I should be able to cut the existing cables aft of the fuel pump area and insert the turnbuckles without losing any overall cable length. All the red ring crimp terminals, LAS Aerospace part numbers 31880 (3mm, #4), 36151 (3.5mm, #6), 320551 (4mm, #8), 36153 (5mm, #10) & 31894 (6.5mm, 1/4") are the good-quality types with an extended metal sleeve to grip the insulation. |
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| 27 |
One of the inspectors phones when I can't pick up & leaves a message that sounds promising. Pull fuselage on wooden dolly out onto front drive. Lift off top moulding and rest upside-down on sling. Remove peel-ply from the top-hat layups. The layups are not adhering in several places - the blue foam is now proud of the adjacent door mouldings - and it's obvious I forgot to make a flox fillet at the inside corners. Attach the flange layups with clecos. Mark around inside edge of each hole and make cross-lines for the centres from those on the outer skin. Remove clecos. Scribe a 32.5mm radius circle on the small layup and a 50mm radius circle on the large layup. Drill 1mm on each marked line and carefully work drill at angles and sideways until I get a slot big enough for the diamond-coated jigsaw blade. Saw around each marked hole outline and smooth edges with a convex fine Perma-Grit file. Attach the MS21047-3 anchor nuts with short temporary screws as usual. Drill through fixing holes 2.4mm and countersink with a Perma-Grit countersink bit in the Dremel. Fit TAPK33BS rivets using nose spacer on rivet puller to clear screw heads. Starting to rain so quickly clear garage floor again, put fuselage top back on and pull it inside. |
1566.8 |
| 29 |
Still trying to contact the inspector again, but only getting answering systems. Continue developing the drawing for mounting the switches on top of the stick. Realise that a 6mm slot drill is going to leave too little metal to support the switch protector, so order some smaller long-reach ones. |
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