Wednesday 5 November 2014

Week 169 - Rudder pedals

Hours to date: 1511.75

Not a great deal of progress in the last 2 weeks as I've had a friend staying from New Zealand - so more beer got drunk than plane got built.

Back into it now.

The second coat of cockpit paint went on well and I'm pleased with the results.

As you'll see below I've started to install things back into the cockpit area.

The first major assembly is the Rudder pedals which I've almost finished.

No major 'gotchas' so far on this job. I did struggle to figure out which way the spring went - this is the spring that keeps the pedal adjustment lever in place.

I'll try to post a better picture of that next time. (Basically it's facing downwards with the closed end at the top acting on the rear of the lever.)

I managed to Nicopress the front hooks for the rudder cables with the tool in the vice (and the cockpit positioned close to the bench). Of course I was unable to do the same for the rear ones as they don't have much slack left in them by the time the front ones are on. Don't forget to put some heat shrink on the cable before Nicopressing your sleeves - then slide it over the sleeve and wire end and apply heat with a gun - this makes for a neater job and helps avoid cut fingers on the wire end later.

In fact I was paranoid that I wouldn't have enough cable to do the job as my mod extending the safety cell forward would use up another 250mm. As it turns out I just had enough to do the job - with only 90mm or so of cable left over on each side after finishing the Nicopress hooks at the rear.

I found the best way to cut the cable is using the Dremel with a cutting disc. Use a little masking tape on the area where you're cutting to make it a clean cut. Use almost no pressure - let the disc do the work (at a high speed).

I've not put the carbon block on the front of the pedals yet - this gets screwed into the micro block at the front of the cell. After I've done that the job will be pretty much finished.

I'll probably have a go at the Trim and Control column next.


Adjustment cable in place - no spring though at this stage.

Looking forward after second coat of paint

Looking rearward



Getting there with Rudder pedals

Carbon block not in place yet but everything else is done.

Hooks and Nicopress sleeve at the rear - use heat shrink to make a neat job of it.

Cable left over - only just enough to do the job

 

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