Tonight I clecoed then riveted the sections of the roll bar to make the forward and aft halves of the roll bar. This is done by clecoing each section to the fuselage and then riveting a plate in place to join the two sides of each half. Alignment was a little tricky, I had to carefully remove some extra material from the flanges of the forward half, so that they could join correctly.
Tonight I dimpled the roll bar brace and brackets, then riveted the roll bar brace brackets to the roll bar brace.
Today I primed the roll bar components.
Tonight I finished deburring roll bar parts, then cleaned them all in preparation for priming. Hoping to prime parts tomorrow.
Tonight I found all of the roll bar parts, and separated the pieces which needed separating, then deburring them. I couldn’t help clecoing on one side of the roll bar to see how it looked. It adds a new dimension to the fuselage, and somehow puts the whole cockpit into perspective.
Tonight I installed the stick bases into the fuselage, then the sticks, and then adjusted the travel and spacing to finish the stick rigging steps. The access was a little tight for these components, but not as bad as I feared. The most time consuming part was carefully sanding and filing the stick stops so that both sticks contacted the stops simultaneously, both fore and aft. I used a small file, and some strips of Emory cloth, to carefully and gradually adjust the stops until both sticks were touching the stops at the same time. Both were right in the middle of the acceptable range of travel. It feels good to have gotten this far! One more chapter and then I’m done with the fuselage kit!
Tonight I drilled the control stick bases. This was quite easy once I found a level surface. I found the superglue didn’t bond well to the steel, so my initial match drilling of the bolt holes was not ideal. Still, everything came out well within an acceptable margin of error.
Tonight I installed the autopilot pitch servo. This was fairly easy, although it was a bit of a stretch at times to reach the back side of the servo to get bolts installed and torqued.
Thanks fully everything installed easily, and I was able to route the wiring easily, cinching down the zip ties too.
Tonight I installed the bellcrank into the fuselage, and connected the pushrods to the idler brackets. I was relieved to discover that the idler bracket still swung freely and no more sanding was needed.
Tonight I assembled the bellcrank and pitch servo bracket. Everything was straightforward except the mounting of the two angles onto the bell crank plate. The alignment of the bolts took some negotiating, but after a few attempts, I was able to get it installed and torqued.
