Dec 14, 2022     Rudder Return - (1.5 hours)       Category: Interior Finish

Glued fabric to rudder return cover and installed. Also, placed shims on left wingtip skin to minimize pillowing between rivets. Needs a bit more work. Originally I was just going to add rivets, but the shims will work better.

  Oct 13, 2022     Fine Tuning Interior - (3 hours)       Category: Interior Finish

Used Tinnerman clip nuts to attach kick panels to stick cover panels. Pondered a way to secure forward end of kick panels. Fabricated 'L' brackets and attached them to the floor and kick panel. Need to buy some tinnerman nutplates for this.

Riveted stick boots in place.

Need to order stainless #6 sheet metal screws to replace and augment the ones Rans provided, along with the nutplates.

  Oct 12, 2022     Kicks - (3.5 hours)       Category: Interior Finish

Kick plate refinement, plus attaching fuel valve panel to left kick panel. I've decided to add nutplates to the kick panel to simplify removing the forward panels for service. Not strictly necessary, but beneficial.

Fabricated the stick boots. For the pilot's boot, I had to enlarge the top opening so it would fit over my RAC grip. I ripped the seam open by about one inch, turned the boot inside out and added a stop rivet at the end of the open seam. I used my rivet squeezer to compact the rivet tail (with stem removed).

  Oct 11, 2022     Kick Panel Fabric - (3.5 hours)       Category: Interior Finish

Covered the kick panels with fabric. Still need to touch up with Krazy Glue.

  Oct 10, 2022     Center Console - (4.2 hours)       Category: Interior Finish

Covered console in fabric and riveted painted doubler panel in place. Labelled functions.

I have both a 12V outlet and a dual 5V outlet (stock Rans). I also added 10V power for ANR headsets (Headsets, Inc. type).

Covered floor pans in fabric as well. I had to de-rivet the kick panels first to make fabric covering easier.

  Oct 09, 2022     Painting Center Console - (.5 hour) Category: Interior Finish

Shot some Winter Grey Rust-Oleum Painter's Touch 2X primer/paint on my center console doubler. The rest of the console will be fabric covered.

  Oct 07, 2022     Futzing       Category: Interior Finish

Fine tuning fit of the aft closeout panels. Drilled bolt holes and extended lower tabs to allow the screw rivet to fit properly.

Also fabricated a doubler panel to reinforce the center console, which is quite flimsy and subject to damage from tugging cables bending the aluminum. .

  Oct 06, 2022     Station 3 Closeout - (3.5 hours) Category: Interior Finish

Trimmed station 3 closeout panels to fit. Looks like the bottom screws will be tricky because they may not intercept the other interior pieces.

  Oct 05, 2022     Adjustments - (2.7 hours)       Category: Interior Finish

Touched up fabric installation with Krazy Glue. Riveted forward floor nutplates. Riveted rear door strike plates into position.

Won't rivet the interior pieces into place until near the end of construction.

  Oct 04, 2022     Station 4 Closeout - (2.5 hours)       Category: Interior Finish

Installed Station 4 bulkhead over interior panels. Modified for fit and installed service floor to simplify access to aft fuselage. It distributes the load to the fuselage bulkheads, preventing buckling of the baggage floor when crawling into the aft fuselage.

When the aft baggage floor panel is removed, the service floor can be folded to allow access to equipment underneath.

  Oct 03, 2022     Interior Panels - (4.5 hours)       Category: Interior Finish

Completed interior baggage panels and screwed into place. Drilled for aft door strikeplate mounting and adjusted the fit of the right door. Checked the fit of my folding waferboard service access floorboards. Looks like some minor adjustment necessary.

  Oct 01, 2022     Covering Panel - (2 hours) Category: Interior Finish

Covered left panel below window.

  Sep 30, 2022     Covering interior panels - (3 hours)       Category: Interior Finish

Purchased more fabric @ $75/linear yard. Covered floor and side panels.

  Sep 29, 2022     Interior Panel Fabric - (3 hours)       Category: Interior Finish

Covered more interior panels with fire resistant fabric from the helicopter interiors shop.

Removed and stored left door.

  Sep 28, 2022     Interior Fabric - (1.5 hours)       Category: Interior Finish

Glued Fabric to aft baggage floor.
Used LePage spray glue and fabric from Green Mountain Aviation Products in Sidney. B.C. Used a foam roller to ensure a smooth bond to the aluminum.

Burned through the holes with an old soldering iron. This prevents the fabric from fraying around the holes.

  Aug 24, 2022     Fine Tuning Interior - (1.8 hours) Category: Interior Finish

Fine tuned interior closeout panel fit.

  Aug 23, 2022     Side Panels - (3.5 hours)       Category: Interior Finish

Trimmed control stick closeouts to allow plastic seat side closeout panels to fit. Attached side closeout retainers and match drilled to panels.

The seat side panels don't fit well, and may need to be replaced. The problem is that they come warped from the factory and it is difficult to make adjustments. They are purely cosmetic, so this can be done later.

  Aug 22, 2022     Flap Lever and Fuel Selector - (3 hours)       Category: Interior Finish

Tweaked the fit of flap lever housing fit by modifying flaps position sensor bracket.

Riveted fuel valve assembly, added cover plate. Ground a divot in cover plate to clear an existing rivet.

  Aug 18, 2022     More interior Panel Stuff - (2.5 hours)       Category: Interior Finish

Completed fabrication and riveting of closeout panel stiffeners.

I was short a stiffener for the second floor panel, so I used a J-stiffener left over from RV & Rocket builds.

I don't like the recommendation of using #6 screws along the bottom, self tapping into the floor. Since I haven't riveted the bottom skin in place yet, I will add some A6195-6Z-1D tinnerman nut plates to provide a more secure attachment.

  Aug 17, 2022     Panel Stiffeners and Riveting - (2.2 hours) Category: Interior Finish

Fabricated and riveted closeout panel stiffeners. Riveted stiffeners and panels together. I used 1/8” rivets rather than the 3/32” rivets recommended by Rans. I have an additional supply of rivets for these types of decisions.

  Aug 16, 2022     Adding Nutplates - (2 hours)       Category: Interior Finish

Added tinnermans to fuselage frame and Rudder Cable Closeout. Flush riveted tinnerman nutplates to Flap Lever Closeout. I used solid rivets for this and dimpled the structure. The nutplates themselves are already dimpled. The result is a nice flat surface.

The underlying Rudder Cable Closeout flange must be carefully trimmed to prevent interference with the installed nutplates.

  Aug 15, 2022     Fitting and Drilling Interior - (3.2 hours)       Category: Interior Finish

Fitted all of the forward panels and match drilled. Most holes are #40, I will upsize them later.

I trimmed 1/4” off the bottom of the side kick panels for fit, and warped them to improve how they rest on the side tubes and against the floor. This fit likely varies between aircraft and individual's definition of 'perfect'. Also, the top AFT and FWD side kick panels rivets (pair of them) was reduced to a single rivet, since a second one would impinge on the fuselage tube and/or underlying wiring.

For the main panels, the flanges that sit on the floor need to be rebent for a proper fit and allow riveting to the floor. See previous post.

Drilled hole on left side kick plate for fuel selector. To mark the position for the hole, I held a wooden block on the inside of the kick panel and tapped the fuel selector (with the handle removed) from the outside with a hammer to leave a witness mark (dimple) on the panel.

  Aug 14, 2022     Fitting Interior - (2 hours)       Category: Interior Finish

Trimming and fitting interior panels

  Aug 13, 2022     Trimming interior - (1 hour) Category: Interior Finish

Trimming interior pieces to clear wiring and fuel lines.

  Aug 12, 2022     Forward Interior - (3.5 hours)       Category: Interior Finish

Roughing in interior panels. Short of the required stiffeners. Deciphering ambiguous plans— viewing on large screen monitor helps.

Bottom flange of the seat pans rebent using wooden blocks so that the flange sits flush on the floor. One bend is opened up and another is closed down.

  May 14, 2022     Wire Grooming - (2.5 hours)       Category: Interior Finish

Finalizing fuselage wire runs.

  May 13, 2022     Wire Grooming - (1.5 hours) Category: Interior Finish

Bonded Zip-tie hold downs to fuselage floor to help secure wiring. Spliced GPS puck data/power cable to extend the length.

  May 11, 2022     Wire Grooming - (2.5 hours) Category: Interior Finish

Grooming wires and wrapping in split loom. Ensured no interference with control cables and interior panels.

  May 10, 2022     Interior Closeouts - (4.0 hours) Category: Interior Finish

Fitted interior panels to check clearances with wire and fuel line routing.

Rerouted right side wires.

Modified fuel line from pump to valve to prevent side panel interference.

  Mar 04, 2021     Installing controls - (5.5 hours)       Category: Interior Finish

Dave W. 3.0 hrs. Drilled out holes in control stick torque tube bushing flanges to 7/32” to allow slight position adjustments that minimize skew in the bushings. This reduces friction/binding. Also added AN960-10 washers under the port side flanges for the same reason.

  Mar 04, 2021     Control Sick - (6.0 hours)       Category: Interior Finish

Dave W. 3.0. Fabricated and installed control stick assembly. Binding in pitch. Solution requires drill out two mounting holes to relieve stresses on collar bushings.

  Mar 01, 2021     Seat install - (2.0 hours)       Category: Interior Finish

Final-ish seat installations. Still need cross tubes for seat, ordered from Rans, plus one cross tube for headrest that I mangled.

  Feb 25, 2021     Seat assembly - (2.0 hours) Category: Interior Finish

Riveted seat pan and slider blocks to one seat. Manuals did not match my parts, downloaded new pages.

  Feb 24, 2021     Installation of seats. - (2.5 hours)       Category: Interior Finish

Continued with seat installation. Wet riveted roller rails. Also installed spacer tubes.

Fabricated a pressure pot from an old oil can by soldering a 1/8 NPT Shrader valve to the pot and sealing the cap with a rivet and proseal.

Primered brake lines and gear leg slot.

  Feb 23, 2021     Seat fabrication - (6.0 hours)       Category: Interior Finish

Dave W. 3.0 hrs. Fabricated seat frames and trial fit into fuselage. Short the cross-piece from Assembly Alert 192, need to order.