Title: AC - Condenser scoop
I had previously marked the centerline on the belly of the fuselage in preparation of mounting the scoop. Then tried my best to mark the centerline of the scoop itself which was a bit of a challenge. It is a compound curved piece and the flange width around the perimeter is not perfectly symmetrical. I felt pretty good about measuring to the middle of the scoop on the front, but the back was a challenge. I measured it several ways and sort of took the average. Strapped the scoop under the fuselage and set it on centerline and the prescribed distance back. Then roughly marked areas where I did not want want screws - conflicts with ribs and spars. Then removed scoop and laid out the screw holes on roughly 3” centers and missing the conflicts. Drilled #40 holes in the scoop. Back under the fuse, held the scoop in place and started match drilling holes working from the front and inserting clecos as I went. Used a heat gun to try to soften up the fiberglass and allow it to contour to the belly. Not sure how much that helped, but eventually got it to fit pretty well. Once all clecos were in place, it was obvious that I should tighten up the spacing near the kink in the belly to hold the scoop tighter. So adjusted the spacing a bit and made a few new holes. Ok, several new holes. Satisfied with the fit, I upsized the good #40 holes to #19. Pulled everything back apart and filled the extra holes in the scoop with epoxy and filled the skin holes with JB Weld. Just cosmetic. This makes it seem simple. In truth it was a lot of back and forth, on and off, climbing under the plane, realizing I didn't have the right tools, squirming out and repeating. Nice to have it roughly mounted though. Still a lot of work to get the 30+ nut plates installed.


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