More F-719 work - 1 hour

So when drilling the 2nd rudder bearing block position on the F-719-L stiffener. The aft mounting holes is just a tad tight for fitment (Remember I reamed the holes to 3/16"). At the end of the day, I felt it better to redo the part since it is fairly easy to do now. So I ordered a new F-719-L stiffener from Vans, but when it arrived today, the fit is very poor when compared to the right side.


To make it fit better, I tried to bend the angle more rather than fabricate shims for such a large gap. Needless to say I ruined the angle trying to bend it more. (Surprise, Surprise). I'll order more F-719-L stiffeners in hopes I can make a near perfect one.

Trimming the rudder brace and pedals - 2 hours

Little work to be done to the assembly. I need to trim the rudder brace as it is a bit long, however since I drilled the 1" lightening hole I cannot trim as much material as I would like. Some other build logs have suggested trimming 1" in from the aft end. But as you can see the 1" line is a bit close to the hole for my liking. I then drew a 3/4" line and that looks a bit better.

I trimmed at the 3/4" line as well as the bottom of the brace according to the dimensions on the plans. (The part comes a bit bigger/deeper).


Lots of material there for the most aft mounting position. As you can see, the 1" lightning hole is much more aft than needed, hence why in retrospect I shouldn't have cut that hole.

Next, I need to trim the rudder pedals to help lighten them. This is fairly straight forward.

Installed the rudder pedal brace - 6 hours

Finally I seem to be back into the proper groove now that I have the rudder pedals sorted. Now I can get back to installing the centre brace.

With the bow in the pedal tubes straitened, the fit of the center brace is much better now.

After taking some time to check the fit, I then drilled the brace to the firewall angle using a #30 bit and my 90deg drill attachment. It was as simple as it sounds.

Now comes the tedious part. Drilling the brace for the bearing block. It takes a bit of time to get things sorted and aligned and then I was able to place the first mounting hole. I finished all holes on the drill press with a reamer so that means I needed to mark the hole, remove, drill, install, then repeat. Tedious, but the results are excellent.

Now I need to enlarge the cutout for the firewall recess. I did make an initial cutout, however what's shown on the plans, is not exactly correct. The plans call for a 1 3/8" cutout to be made to the part that's already supposed to have a small cutout. The part they give you has no cutout at all. so I bit of thinking, measuring and cutting is needed here.At this point I am close

Little bit of filing and final fitting things are looking good.


Once the fit was correct and complete, I then drilled the lightening holes as suggested in the plans. I did all three, but in retrospect I should have omitted the 1" cutout, it would allow me to trim the brace a bit more. You will understand when I show you how I trim the brace.

More rudder and brake pedals - 3 hours

I really think deep down I love working on these pedals. Just can move past them.

The new rudder pedal arrived this week so I went to work straightening the bow'd tubes trying very carefully not to kink them. I use the wood stairs in the garage as the are open type and spruce (soft wood) and I wedge the tube in the opening and I am then able to bend them into a relatively straight shape.

 I had also ordered one new brake pedal since one of mine was quite scratched. I matched drilled it to my angles and then I took some time to clean up the lightning holes in all 4 pedals. that's more work than it sounds.



 

More brake pedal work - 1 hour

Saw this today and had a good laugh....

I'm kind of slowed down on my build until I receive new parts. So I putz'ed on the brake pedals. I countersunk all the holes for the AN426 rivets. Better than doing nothing I guess.

The rudder pedal 2-step - 2 hours

Unfortunately a very short build day today. Grrr 



One step forward....two back.

I started in on the build session by setting up all of the dimensions on the F-6118 rudder pedal brace. I then did an initial cutout for the firewall recess.

Once I was happy with things, I then drilled the holes that are to attach the brace to 1/8" per the drawings. Next I need to clamp the brace onto the firewall and begin the final adjusting so that I can complete the rest of the drilling on the firewall.

While messing with the fit, I noticed that I wasn't getting a real nice fit/alignment. Long story short, the rudder pedals have a bow in the long tubes that is affecting how everything aligns. I'll save you the boring details and lets just say that I kinked the WD-655-R-PC rudder pedal tube while trying to straighten the bow. The kink wasn't horrible but I just don't want to live with that. That's an expensive part order (Add in part, exchange and shipping and it's not cheap! ~$250cdn). Yeeesh.

Installed the rudder pedals - 2 hours

Didn't manage to spend a whole lot of time in the garage today, however it was most defiantly a full plane day. Today was an EAA Meetup out in Wetaskawin.

My buddy Mike came over and we headed out to the EAA meet and someones hanger. Fortunate for me there was some really nice F1 rockets out there that I was able to drool over.



As well, I got to take a good look at some other planes as well as a beautifully painted RV7. Also one of the members has a RV10 that I got a good peak at and he was able to give me some advice on avionics and engine choices which I appreciated

Oh...A Stearman!

So needless to say I didn't get a long build session in today but I was certainly motivated to get going when I got home.
I started in by removing the Bearing blocks to the F-719 stiffeners. I clamped the assembly to the bench and used the hand drill to start the holes. I finished the holes on the drill press using a reamer.




When all was done...I installed the rudder pedals into the fuselage.