Tonight was a bit of a grind…No pun intended. The pushrod connecting the control sticks to the bellcrank interferes with the F-705 Bulkhead. More particularly the F-705B center section bar. Although this seems to be a very common issue with other builds, I called Vans just to make sure I was ok. Yup…I need to shave the stiffener enough to clear the pushrod.
So now the tricky part. How to remove just enough material? Well slow and steady wins the race, I installed the pushrod and then was able to mark out the extents of the pushrod. Then I sketched a scallop. Using a dremel with a sanding drum, I carefully removed material. Then I used a rough grit sandpaper wrapped around the pushrod and moved the piece back and forth through the range of motion. The rough grit clearly marks the remaining interference. I then can work on the required area. It’s a bit time consuming, but the process worked very well and in the end….I have a perfect amount of clearance. Nice and tight….only a little material is removed.
