Rudder Pedal Work

Still trying to get the rudder pedal assembly to operate freely. The pedals are secured at four locations. Getting the pedals to rotate freely when securing all four attach points is proving quite difficult. The assembly is binding up on one or more of the attach points. More "massaging" as the builders manual indicates is going to be needed. Hours: 3

Rudder Pedal work cont.

Temporarily installed rudder pedal brackets, shims, and rudder pedals, and found that they were binding.  Removed the pedals and noticed slight bow from one end to the other.  Applied heat on the center tube of the pedal assembly and then worked to persuade them into a better position.  After much work, the pedals now rotate more freely. (EB, MC).  Hours: 2.5

Rudder Pedal Work

Started fitting the rudder pedals to the fuselage attach points.  Had to trim material from each side of the welded rudder pedal dual unit (F-0800) to allow the two hinge ring end plates (F-0800.1) to fit correctly. (MC & EB).  Hours: 1

Glued Bottom Stringer onto Bushings

The bottom stringer was epoxied to the bottom bushings using Hysol 9460 epoxy.  After about 30 minutes, the joints were smoothed for better appearance. (MC & EB).  Hours: 1

Fit bottom stringer; riveted stringer bushings

Mounting posts (bushings) for bottom stringer were cut-off to final length, deburred, and riveted to fuselage.  Back end of stringer was bent using a pipe-bender.  Our bottom stringer will have a larger bow than what is needed with standard gear, and this is due to the need for additional space to install the Grove gear through the stringer once fabric is in place.  The distance from the bottom surface of the grove gear to the center of the stringer was 3 3/8". (MC & EB).  Hours: 3

Working on Bottom Stringer

Played a little more with the shape of the bottom stringer.  The forward and aft sections were flattened a little more.  The area around the main gear was left alone to allow room for mounting once fabric is applied. (EB & MC).  Hours: 0.5

Bottom Stringer

Measured, cut, deburred 10 bushings (stand-off posts) for lower stringer.  Hours 1

Main Landing Gear Bottom Stringer Clearance

Came to a final conclusion on how "big" to make the bottom stringer bow to allow Grove gear clearance and how "big" the fabric hole will need to be to allow the the Grove gear to be installed without interfering with the fabric. (EB & MC).  Hours: 0.5

Reamed Strings Stem Holes

The attach points for the bottom stringer stems had to be reamed to 5/16" to allow the aluminum tube stems to fit tightly.  Hours: 0.5

Determining of fabric opening size and location for gear

Working on determining size of bow in bottom stringer, and size of hole that will be needed in fabric to feed the Grove gear through the hole.  We tested a few different positions of the bottom stringer, used paper to simulate the fabric, and then fed the gear through rectangular holes in the paper to determine if the hole would be large enough to get the gear through.  We determined that this method of installing the gear will work, but still need to finalize the position of the bottom stringer and the location/size of the hole in the fabric.     EJB, MHC  Hours: 0.5

Main Landing Gear Bottom Stringer Clearance

Trying to determine how big the bow needs to be made in the bottom stringer.  The bow needs to be large enough to clear the landing gear for installation.  Just Aircraft factory was contacted for more information. (MC & EB)  Hours: 1

Attached Main Landing Gear

The Grove Aluminum landing gear was installed into the brackets to check for fit and allow us to judge how large to make the attach stems for the bottom stringer.  All temporary fasteners were used.  Hours: 0.75

Fitted and adjusted landing gear brackets

Fitted the landing gear attach brackets (for Grove landing gear). Both brackets (left and right side) were close, but did not quite fit initially into the welded steel attach points on the fuselage.  To fix this, we milled off a slight amount of the aluminum gear brackets until they fit into the slots in the fuselage.  Removed about 0.05" from two inside edges of the right landing gear bracket, and removed 0.025" from the outside edges of the left landing gear bracket. With these minor adjustments, the brackets now fit properly.  EJB, MHC  Hours: 3

Glued Side and Top Stringers to Fuselage

Cleaned parts with Acetone and then affixed them to the fuselage using Hysol 9460 structural adhesive.  The stringers were held in place using cable-ties as clamps until the epoxy cures. (EB & MC)  Hours: 1

Side stringers fitted

Side stringers were fitted, drilled, and set in place.  Side stand-off posts for stringers were cut to length to match the curve of the stringers. (EB & MC).  Hours: 3