Category: Fuselage

Dismantle rudder pedals, install bilge pumps – 11/5/17

We took our rudder pedals apart to replace the defective rudder control blocks.  They were not made with enough material and several people have reported that the center block is cracking and failing during taxi or flight.  Then the rudder controls don’t work properly.  Not catastrophic but still dangerous. Here’s a picture comparing the old…

Wing wiring and Anti-compression sleeves – 6/25/217

We noticed that if you put the recommended torque of 60-70 inch lbs on the fuselage tube bolts, that they start to deform. We used a clamp to make them round again and created some anti compression sleeves for the bolts so that we could torque them. We did this with plastic tubes. We should…

Fuselage, 914 Root Tube – 3/19/17

Today we took the fuselage off the ceiling lift hooks. We ordered the stronger 914 Root Tube which is necessary for our 117HP engine.  It arrived with a ding on the corner, hopefully that is okay. Root tube comes in 3 parts that fit together.

Fuel Tank Fitting and Corrosion Protection Dec 6+7, 2015

Today we did a trial fitting of the fuel tank.  We also riveted the cluster bracket which had been waiting for a while. On day 2 we sprayed the inside of the fuselage tubes with CorrosionX protectant.   I brought up the turtledeck and we tried it on the hull Here’s a pic of the…

Hull Attach, cut gear holes in hull – 11/27/2015

We worked 6 hours today and made some good visible progress!   Spent a lot of time with levels trying to make sure the frame was the same height on both sides.   Drilled stringer holes to attach hull using a right angle air drill. Space is pretty tight, good luck using a normal drill!…

Seat Bushings, Ceiling eyebolts for lifting plane – 11/25/2015

Worked on minor stuff today, seat bushings and drilling holes in my spancrete garage ceiling to put in lifting eyebolts.   We used Redhead wedge anchors and eye nuts from McMaster Carr.     New bushing for Seat quick removal   Eye nuts in spancrete ceiling for lifting plane Upper Tailpost Support – had trouble getting…

In and out of the hull, wing inventory 11/22/2015

We took the fuselage in and out of the hull a couple of times during the last 2 weeks.   We need to put some hooks in the ceiling because it is getting heavy! We decided that we needed to torque some of the bulkhead bolts so that the fuselage frame would flex less.  We…

Trial fit fuselage in hull 10/29/15

We worked on trial fitting the fuselage in the hull. We cut some holes in the rear of the hull and also changed the pedal footrest to provide more legroom.   We need to get a hoist, this thing is getting heavy! Rounding off the push/pull aileron holder because it was hitting the hull. We…

Hull touchup, Build Elevators, build Floats 10/7/15

We worked on touching up the hull today and building the elevators and float attachments. The hull had some small gaps in the corners that we filled with West Epoxy Adhesive 610. The thinking there is that water could get in the crevices and damage the hull if it froze.  Someone on the STS site thought…