Initial fitting the pitot mast - 3.5 hours

I was finally ready to begin fitting the pitot mast. I had already settled on a SafeAir 1 mast some time ago and had purchased one. over the last few months I was deciding on where to put it. Considering I need a heater pitot, I need to make sure there is room for the heat controller. I finally settled on a position between two ribs outboard of the aileron bellcrank. The tricky part will be to build a support stiffener to help secure the mast between the two ribs as the wing skin is pretty thin at that area.
I began playing with the fit on the spar.




Looks like I will have to watch the clearance with the spar rivets.




Now at this point I could see how things were going to work out. More in terms of the rivet lines. One thing that I wanted to do was have the horizontal rivet line, in line with the rib/skin rivets. 
Another item of concern was making sure that the ribs were going to be in the right place to make the stiffener. My solution was to make a template based on the skin. I took a piece of scrap and similar to the method used in the spar doubler, I match drilled the rivet holes from the skin.



Now that I had the correct placement of the rib holes, I now could ensure that my rivet line going across would line up with the rib rivets.



Here it is fit into place.


 I was sure to check, check and re-check that the mast center line was correct and perpendicular with the spar.

 
 No, I needed to place the mast, so I needed to cut a template to trace onto the scrap. I didn't want to use the paper template just yet, so I used a piece of cardboard.


 It makes a perfect outline when you press the mast on it.

Now that I had the outline, I could trace it onto the scrap piece and find the correct fit/location.

It sits a little forward as the mast frame makes contact with the spar/skin rivets. I may need to either move the mast back slightly, or simply remove a little material from the mast plate to clear the spar rivet shop heads


I haven't drilled the spar holes into the pitot mast just yet, and I'm thinking on when its best to drill those holes.