Brake Master Cylinder Installation

After allowing the paint on the Brake Cylinder attach brackets the two MC-4 and two MC-5 brake master cylinders were installed using AN3-12A bolts and matching washers and nuts.  With the brake cylinders in place, the location of the attach hole in the toe brake attach bracket was marked.  The parts were removed and holes drilled to 5/16".  The brackets were re-installed and the brake cylinders were attached using the nuts included with the cylinders. Hours: 1

Brake Cylinders Installed

Toe Brake Work

Had to do a little grinding on the rudder pedals to allow the toe brake brackets to fit correctly and allow free movement.  Once the brackets fit correctly, the F-0845.0 Bushings were fit with the correct orientation indicated in the builder's manual.  The F-0845.1 bushing stops were fit in place and drilled for a CCP-44 rivet (i.e. 1/8").  The parts were bushing parts were removed and prepared for painting.  The parts were allowed to dry overnight and then everything was re-assembled and the toe bushings tops were riveted in place.  The Matco brake cylinders were next to be fitted.  Due to an interference issues with the attach bracket and the brake cylinder attach point more grinding was needed.  about 1/16" was removed from the rounded section of the attach brackets on the fuselage.  Once the grinding was done, the exposed metal was painted to prevent rust.  Brake cylinder installation will have to wait for the paint to dry.  Hours: 2.5

Toe Brakes Added

Toe Brakes

The toe brake brackets needed to have the powdercoat removed so that they rotate freely on the F0845.0 Bushings.  This was done first with a reamer and then a 1/2" grinding wheel.  Hours: 0.5

Seat Belt Attach Points

The seat belt attach point holes were marked and drilled to 1/4" size.  A mistake in one of the shoulder harness attach points had to be welded over and re-drilled due to a slip during drilling.  Bolts, washers, seatbelt bushings and nuts were installed in the holes, but the actual seat belts will not be installed until final assembly.  Hours: 1.5

Seats and Cushions

A milestone was reached with the seats today.  We riveted the aluminum seat bottoms and backs to the seat frames.  Then we set the seat cushions in place so that we could try them out.

Seat backs and bottoms riveted; One seat cushion shown

Finally, we hopped in and gave it a go.  Found out that the seats are nice and comfy.  The right pilot's seat doesn't adjust smoothly when sliding it up or back, so we have a little adjustment to do there yet.  Here's a picture of the builders sitting in the cockpit for the first time, with smiles on our faces.  I may have made airplane noises, but won't admit it publicly.  (Hours:  0.8)

Builders flying around in the garage

Seat Backs

The seat back steel and aluminum parts were deburred and the holes reamed for mounting.  The seat back frames were installed using AN3-12A bolts and matching nuts and washers.  Bolts were tightened just enough to allow free movement of the back to allow access to the baggage area when folded forward.  Hours: 1

Seat Backs installed

Seat Adjustment Pin

The seats are locked into position using the F-2080 seat adjustment pins. These are installed in the front of the seat and are spring loaded to drop into the holes in the adjustment rail.  A 0.052" (#55 drill bit) hole is drilled in the pin to allow an AN416-1 safety pin to secure the spring.  Drilling the hole was a little daunting, but we found an excellent idea on Gary Steube's picture site that allowed us to drill the holes fairly easily. Hours: 1

Gary Steube's website:  https://plus.google.com/photos/117395836098651740243/albums/5703969215324681137

Seat Adjustment Pin Installed

More Seat Work

The seat adjuster rails were installed by drilling through holes at both ends of rail that match the fuselage brackets.  Paint in the bushings of the seat bottoms was removed to allow the seats to move freely on the mounted rail.  A stop ring was installed and secured with stainless rivets to prevent the seat from hitting the flap pulley on the passenger side and the elevator push-rod on the pilot side.  The plans mention an additional bracket for added strength.  Our fuselage did not have the welded bushings for mounting the bracket so a call to the factory was required.  We found that they no long used the bracket (p/n F-2090).  Hmmm, wish the build manual was up to date!

With the seat bottoms installed, the seat pin bushing was used as a drill guide to drill holes in the adjuster rail for varying the seat position.  Holes were drilled for the forward and rearward most seat position and 1" intervals between the two.  The holes were reamed and deburred to allow the seat adjuster pin to slide in smoothly.  Hours: 2.5

Seat Bottoms Installed with Adjuster Holes Drilled

Seats

Aluminum sheets for the seat backs and seat bottoms were trimmed, drilled, and cleco'd in place

Seat back and seat bottom

Four plastic slides (runners) for the two seats were also installed.  These were drilled and riveted into place.  Flush rivets were used, and these are counter-sunk.  Hours: 2.0

Center runners

Left runner

Elevators revisited

Well, turns out we weren't quite done with the elevators.  After we thought everything was fine, we took a closer look and noticed something wasn't quite right.  We had clamped the front of the elevators to the horizontal stabilizer and drilled the holes in the elevators as recommended.  But after doing so and installing the bolt, it turns out that something moved on us and the two elevators were no longer lined up with the horizontal stabilizers.  Ughh.  Very frustrating.  

So then we investigated some more to see how this could have happened.  What we found is that one of the holes in the elevator horn was slightly too large (slightly over 3/16 inch).  Because of this, there is enough slop that allows for relative movement of the two elevators when the bolt is installed.  So if the two elevators were (ever so slightly) misaligned when the hole for the push-pull tube was drilled, then this leads to a misalignment that is not easy to recover from.

Elevator horn holes repaired via TIG welder

So we decided that a "do-over" is the best way to recover from this.  We used TIG welder to fill in the previously drilled holes on the elevators.  Then applied primer to protect the metal.  These are now ready for re-drilling.  Since we are creating new holes, we can properly size and align them carefully before drilling.   Hours: 2.0

Elevators primed and ready to go

Elevator Trouble Resolved

After a lot of consternation the last few days, we finally got the elevator figured out.  A posting to the WingsForum Just Aircraft Support Group( http://www.wingsforum.com/viewforum.php?f=218 ) brought the answer from multiple builders who've experienced the problem.  Actually it was no problem after all. The guys at Just Aircraft have imbedded a slight warpage into the elevator to stop flutter in flight.  The only problem is the builder's manual makes no reference to this fact and doesn't give any details on how to install the elevator for drilling of the elevator horn holes.  With the new details from the WingsForum support group we were able to quickly get the elevator installed.   The holes were drilled and reamed and the pushrod to the control sticks was connected.  The down elevator travel was 28.5 degrees and the up elevator travel was 28.9 degrees.  We are very happy to finally have some control surface movement from the cockpit area!  Hours: 1.5

Up Elevator @ 28.9 Degrees

Down Elevator @ 28.5 Degrees

More Elevator Troubles

After re-installing the elevators and clamping the elevators level with the horizontal stabilizers we measured the right side down by 1/8" at the tip of the counter-balance, but the left side (with trim tab) measures down by 1/4" to 3/8" which is very noticeable.  We're still trying to determine the best course of action.  Hours: 1.0

Left Elevator Counter-balance

Elevator issue

Elevators were installed, but there appears to be an issue as we were unable to line up the left and right elevators.  If both of them were lined up with the horizontal stabilizer in front, then they are not lined up across the back.  It is difficult to tell where the problem lies, but the left elevator appears to be a bit off, and may have a slight warp in the shape.  We removed the left elevator and will spend some time examining it closely to figure out what is wrong.  Hours: 2.0

Elevator Installation

Nylon tubing, P/N 450005-131280 was installed into all hinge points on horizontal stabilizer and elevator and cut flush. The left and right elevators were installed using a AN393-79 clevis pin in each hinge. The matching cotter pin will be added during final installation.  Hours: 1.0

Reaming Elevator and Horizontal Stabilizer

The holes for the Elevator and Rudder attach points needed to be reamed to remove the powder coat in the holes.  The matching holes on the horizontal and Vertical stabilizers also need reaming.  Most of the holes were easily done with a drill attached HSS reamer.  There were a few hard to reach holes that needed some ingenuity.  The reamer was attached to a drill bit extension which provided the leverage to spin the reamer without an attached drill. Hours: 1.0

Flap Handle Installed

The flap handle was installed.  The assembly was positioned such that there was 3/16" clearance from a fuselage cross-member when the handle is full forward.  Three washers were used as temporary spacers to get the spacing right. The elevator push-pull tube had to be temporarily removed in order to drill one of the 4 mounting holes due to interference.  Once the flap handle was installed, the push-pull tube was reinstalled.  Hours: 1.5

Flap handle (center of picture)