Stick trimming
I got a ton of little items done today. I started off by riveting the parking brake reinforcement in place and adjusting the brake lines to fit. I had to trim the left line a little bit. I also used compressed air to blow out the lines before installing them. I’m waiting for some screws from Vans, so the valve itself is just clecoed in place. In the picture, you can see a little tab sticking out at the top of the reinforcement. That’s where I’ll attach an adle clamp for the cable. I probably put way too much thought into this thing, but it should work out pretty slick.
I also used some pop rivets to attach the rudder cable fairings. It’s impossible to buck these.
While I was working on the tail, I riveted and bolted the elevator up-stop in place and riveted the rudder stops.
I drilled out the holes for the pressure manifold, but couldn’t mount it because I have some fittings on order that I “borrowed” for the parking brake.
Next next thing to figure out was how much to trim the sticks. The best way to determine that was to sit in the cockpit and try them out. I had Julie take a couple of goofy pictures while I was in there. The cockpit is starting to feel real with the sticks in place and the panel mock-up. There sure isn’t much side-to-side shoulder room, and I’m not a big guy.
I verified that the seat backs will clear the canopy frame just fine. This was a problem that Dan ran into, but Vans must have fixed it in the plans.
I decided to trim 2″ off each stick. This is about how much the grips add to the height, so I’m really not changing the design at all. After that I drilled a hole in the front of the stick near the pivot point for the wires to exit. Having the wires exit at the bottom makes them move around way too much. I put a small snap bushing in the hole and put some shrink wrap around the wires. I also tweaked the pilot pivot point a bit so that the bolt tightens down on the bushing and not on the stick weldment. I mounted everything back in the plane. The wire is going to work out great.
Of course the stick hits the bottom of the panel by about 1/2″. I’m not sure if that’s a problem or not. I don’t really want to disassemble everything again.
I also spilled about a cup of cutting oil on the floor in the process of drilling the stick. Fun (not). It was of course the one time that I got lazy and decided not to put the cap on the oil.