Week 71 - Wing pins, cockpit interior and panel

Hours to date: 730.75

I spent a great day helping Pete last Sunday put the finishing touches to his 3rd Twister. He said he should be taking it on it's first flight by mid-February.

I took another 110 photos while I was there (like I didn't already have enough photos of Twisters...).

I'll put some of those soon in a separate post but until then it's back to my build.

The rudder cable mounting points are shown in the photo below from the outside - flock around the space between the washer and the safety cell. I waxed the forked and threaded end on the inside so I could remove it later to make painting the interior of the cell easier.

After that I bonded in the plastic bearings for the rear wing pins - easily done with a bit of flock.

Onto the front wing pins. Which they make no mention of in the manual (at least none I could find). I believe the earlier kits had the front wing pins installed in the factory.

So I just had to figure out how far out they should protrude from the wing root. The bearing they will slide into (bonded into the wing at a later date) have a depth of 25mm so that's what I went for. I noticed from photos that the bearings in the wing are pretty much flush to the edge so 25mm seems like the logical value.

To bond these in you mix up a shed-load of flock after drilling a 30mm hole and then just make sure the pin is properly keyed up for bonding before sliding it in and surrounding it with flock.

I used a technique I borrowed from the French Twister build. Get a block of wood and drill a 30mm hole in it and then clamp that to the side of the wing root to hold the pin at exactly 90 degrees while it sets.

I got around to bonding and glassing in the metal plate on the outside of the cell - it is the control run for the cowl flap. After that I did the same with the thinner plate I made up for the inside.

Onto the panel which again due to my freakishly long legs needs to be modified. I did a test getting out with the standard panel and I always hit my knees on the lower edge - so this would not do if I had to get out in a hurry. So I've cut the knee holes out a bit more to give me good clearance.

I'll also add a tube cut down the middle and placed over the sharp edge later. Hitting a sharp edge like that with your knees every time you get out of the cockpit would become a pain (in the knees!) after a while.

I've also made the lower part of the panel wider at the top to accommodate the GPS I will be fitting. A Garmin Aera 500.

The rest of my time I have spent filling in the gaps in the bonding seams on the cell interior. What a job...

3 days of sanding, vacuuming and the body filling and I'm not done yet. Most of the work is because of the safety cell lengthening mod I did - which has to be smoothed into the rest of the cell and also coated with a layer of body filler to make it ready for painting.

Next up is finishing up that panel and then making up some plywood blocks that hold the seat in place.

Rear wing pin bearings

Rudder cable end attachment - outside the cell

Wing pin - wood block to keep pin at 90 degrees while it sets

Front Wing pin 

Ali plate for cowl flap control bonded onto cell outer

Panel mod - cardboard with duct tape for shaping

Ditto with some flock to shape out the lower section

Cowl flap inner ali plate bonded and glassed into place.

Body filler on seam and cell mod

Rear upper of cell seam