Workshop TV

To make our garage workshop a little more "liveable", we decide to install a TV.  Bought a wall mount kit, and moved this 32" LCD TV from the spare bedroom to the garage.  Works great!

Workshop Entertainment

Additional Flooring Work

Rudder cable holes were marked and cut out from the rear baggage aluminum panel.  The hole placements were made using the rudder cable guide holes in the fuselage.

The two flooring panels between the seats and fuselage sides were drilled to final size and all holes and edges were deburred.  The flooring panel below the rudder pedals was also drilled to final size and then holes/edges deburred.  Hours: 2

Baggage Flooring

Trimmed and deburred the edges of the aluminum sheets that make up the baggage flooring and back of baggage bay. Additional trimming was done to allow space for the interior finishing fabric to pass between the aluminum sheet and the frame.  We also up-drilled the fastener holes for these sheets to the final size (1/8").  These panels are currently cleco'd in place.  Hours: 4

Rear baggage area with flooring

Elevator Push-Pull Tube

Installed the short elevator push-pull tube that connects the bell-crank (which also attaches to the long push-pull tube) to the elevator horn.  Had to bend the tube up slightly (about 0.5 inch deviation) in front of the front bearing point to alleviate friction. The elevators are not installed yet, so there is currently no connection to the elevator horn.  Hours: 1.5

Control Sticks Installation

Drilling Control Stick Bolt Hole

The control sticks (F-1380) were installed onto the control stick pivot assembly previously installed.  A pilot hole was made 1" up from the bottom of the control stick, the final hole size was made with a 3/16" reamer and an AN3-12A bolt was installed with AN960-10 washers and an AN365-1032 nut. (1 hour)

Control Sticks Installation Completed

Push-Pull Tube Installation

Installed Long Push-Pull tube, which connects from the control stick mixer to a bell crank in the aft fuselage.  The tube had to be bent slightly in front of the front bushing (about 1 to 1.5 inch deviation), and also slightly rear of the back bushing (about 1/2 inch deviation) to relieve binding at the bearing points.  Hours: 1.5

Bending the push-pull tube

Push-pull tube attached to horn on control stick mixer

Push-Pull tube attached to bell crank in rear

Bell Crank Installed

Bell crank installed

Installed the push pull bell crank F-1400 in the rear fuselage.
(0.5 hours)

Pushrod Bushings Installed

Bushing Installed

Inserted the F-1370.0 push/pull control rod nylon bushings into the 4 fuselage positions and locked in place with the retaining rings.
The rear most position had excess weld material that had to be removed with a Dremel tool.
(0.5 hours)

Control stick mixers installed

Control stick mixer installed

Standard washer and fabricated wedge washer

Finished installation of control stick mixers (F-1310). The mixer was definitely an exercise in frustration, but we finally got it done.  The manual states that parts should be snug, and we found that there is a fine line between too tight, and too loose.  For the final solution, we used a combination of fabricated aluminum wedge shaped washers, standard penny washers, and thin washers to get the fit correct.  These washers are used as spacers between the two halves of the bushing.  Wedge washers were useful to keep the sides of the bushings from rubbing. (The fat part of the washer is placed at the outside edge).  Also installed the stops on each end of the mixer with rivets.  Hours: 2.5

Control stick mixer adjustment

Spent more time fine-tuning the mixer by adding various washers between the halves of the bushings.  Removed the mixer completely so that each bearing point could be worked on independently, which made it easier to tell which part was either too loose or was still binding.  Adding washers that have a slight wedge shape frees the mechanism and enables it to move freely, but it moved much too easily and had too much wobble, so more adjustment is needed.   Hours: 3

Installing control stick mixer

Test fitted the control stick mixer, with installation of nylon bushings (F-1310).  Reamed the holes and did a test install, but there was too much friction and the mixer did not turn freely.  Removed powdercoat paint, and tried adding additional washers between the halves of the bushing as suggested in the manual, but still had binding on the sides.  Found that by grinding a washer at a slight angle, we can push the arms of the bushings out slightly to help free the mechanism.  Work will continue to find the perfect balance so that parts fit snug and the mixer rotates easily.  Hours: 2.5

Control Stick Mixer

The builders with the control stick mixer

Closeup of the control stick mixer

Installed connecting rods and control stick pivots to mixer.  Spent a few hours fixing problems with binding, which was caused by tiny misalignment of parts.  Found that the ends of the control stick pivots were slightly angled out, so bent those straight which helped tremendously.  Once all parts were moving freely without any binding, they were greased and assembled.  Castle nuts and cotter pins were used to fasten these parts.   Hours: 3.5

Flying Wires

Flying wires hanging from hooks

Completed building the six flying wires for the horizontal stabilizer.

Flying wires installed

Just Highlander

This is a picture of a completed Just Highlander with nosegear.  Once completed, ours will generally resemble this.

Tricycle configuration with Grove Main Landing Gear

Finished Flying Wires for Horizontal Stabilizer

The two bottom Flying wires were constructed using the stainless steel cable, thimbles, and swag crimps provided.  Once the cables were completed, all six cables were temporarily installed on the rear fuselage.  Hours: 2.5