21-05; installation of mixer & pulley brackets

Ribs with mixer; ribs with pulley bracket

Ribs with flaperon mixer.

Note the mysterious screw & nut on the left side. 

Ribs with pulley bracket

39-02, autopilot servo bracket

This page is slightly odd—it’s a detour just before the final step on page 21-05.  Unfortunately, I was tired and had a headache and completed all of page 21-05 despite the clear instruction to take the detour.  As a result, I had another opportunity to demonstrate my de-riveting prowess.  (I suppose I could have published page 21-05, but I’m trying to follow the rules.

Autopilot servo bracket

This bracket is just on the other side of the flaperon mixer.  It’s hard to see here, but it is the doubler with the rectangular hole.  In the upper left, you can see 1/2 of a screw head.  There’s a nylon lock nut on the other side.  I have no idea what that screw is doing, as it’s not attaching anything to anything else...

21-04, Flaperon Mixer assembly, seat belt lugs

Flaperon Mixer assembly

I’m not at all sure how this will mix aileron and flap input, but that’s what the label implies.  This is the first castle nut with cotter pin that I have used.  I didn’t spread the cotter pins in an elegant fashion (around the castle nut), but it’s doing its job and I’m not going to remove/replace it.  I read a tip on VAF about using a drop of tamper detection lacquer on torqued fasteners as a visual indication that it has been torqued to spec.  I didn’t take a picture of it, but there’s a drop of orange dye on the opposite side of this device.

 

Seat Belt Lug (1 of 4)

One of four seat belt lugs installed on the seat ribs.

21-03, more baggage floor

Here are more ribs to the aft of the lower bulkhead.  They’re only about 5 or 6” so I’m calling them ’short ribs’.

 Short Ribs attached to bulkhead

I’m not sure where this will be used, but they had me assemble it here.

Pulley Bracket

21-02, Baggage Floor. wing stub spar receptacles

On the other hand, this page was ridiculously difficult (complicated).  Here’s the easy part; just two pair of brackets flush riveted together around a bearing.

Bearing Brackets

The baggage floor gave me one bit of trouble where I got my left & right mixed up and I #19 dimpled the left side panel instead of the right.  I used my flat squeezer set to undimple the floor, but there are tell tale marks you can see below.

 

Baggage Floor, right side

Baggage Floor left side

 

The wing stub spar receptacles were pretty straightforward.  I double & triple checked alignment before I did any filing.  After I clecoed the receptacles to the bulkhead, I took the assembly over to the wings and made sure that they slid on/off easily. 

Rear Baggage lower bulkhead

Wing Stub Spar Receptacle

20-05, Center Section Side Stiffeners

This was an amazingly easy page to do.  

Side Stiffeners installed on center section

20-04, Center Section Aft Bulkhead

Side Bulkhead onto Aft Bulkhead

Opposite Side Bulkhead

There are some scratches where I had a problem getting that rivet to seat into the hole and had to use some pliers to pull it for re-insertion.

20-03, Center Section Prep

Mystery Hold

Before I started drilling, I saw an extra hole (identified by the arrow) that wasn’t called out in any plans or shown on any drawings.  Because it was late at night, I decided to do nothing except post a query to VAF.  Two replied and said that it was probably a manufacturing hole (used to help create a reference datum for the machining process) and could be safely ignored.  Great! Back to work!

Holes drilled into aft face of Center Section

I had a hell of a time drilling at first—that’s a thick piece of metal!    I got out my old plug-in electric drill because I figured that I’d burn out or otherwise damage my battery operating drills.  About a quarter of the way through the drilling, I remembered a comment about using a bit of lubrication and put a dab of Beolube on to each spot for drilling and I was very impressed at how much easier it was.  I did splatter some beolube on my shirt, but that’s a badge of honor now!

Close up of the small parts

20-02, Center Section initial work

And we’re off to a new section and a new kit.  I hadn’t worked with metal for several weeks and there was a distinct slowness about getting up the courage to start making cuts on expensive material.

 

Center Section w Aft Bulkhead clecoed in place

Fuselage & Finish kits inventory complete

 

Finally!  It took an amazingly long time to get through the finish and fuselage kits.  The biggest issue was counting all of the little pieces in all of the little bags.  I had 3 shortages from the finish kit but none from the fuselage kit.  I decided to put all of the pieces back into the crate and will use the crate as a building surface for the fuselage. I brought 2 empty shelve units from the basement to put all of the fuselage pieces.  All of the small pieces are placed into baggies with a sticky note inside for ID. All of the baggies are then sorted into groups and those are in separate bins.

 Finish Kit contents