Tag: Interior

Final assembly continued…

Pitot and AOA lines installed. Ready for flight.

Pitot and AOA lines installed. Ready for flight.

Left-side stick to torque tube pushrod connection finger tight for testing.

All right-side wing root connections torqued and sealed. Ready for flight.

All left-side wing root connections torqued and sealed. Ready for flight.

Right-side lower wing root fairing clecoed in place.

Right-side lower wing root fairing clecoed in place.

Left-side lower wing root fairing clecoed in place.

Left-side lower wing root fairing clecoed in place.

Right-side fuel tank vent in place

Left-side fuel tank vent in place.

Right-side engraved fuel tank cap installed and adjusted. Ready for flight.

Left-side engraved fuel tank cap installed and adjusted. Ready for flight.

Seat ramps, seat ramp cover, and aft tunnel cover clecoed back in place.

Baggage bulkhead corrugation removed for inspection. Various elevator bellcrank connections torque-sealed.

The neat pile of interior components that Jean is maintaining in the back of the hangar. Thanks, hon!!

Now that the ailerons are connected, the sticks no longer flop to one side or the other. They look ready to go!!

Left-side upper wing root fairing clecoed in place.

Right-side upper wing root fairing clecoed in place.

Overall view at the end of today’s session. It’s definitely looking purposeful and RV-like. Can’t wait to go flying in another few weeks.

Finish components continued…

Right-side aft fuselage side skin cover plate in place.

Left-side aft fuselage side skin cover plate in place.

One of the elevator bolts shown as an example of torque seal application. A bit blobby here, but effective.

Forward tunnel cover clecoed in place. I was sure that it would have to be cut down at the aft end to allow all of the wires/tubes/cables/et al. to clear, but it actually fit. Amazing!!

Inlet baffles mostly secured (3 of 4 screws each) in place. The outboard screws must be extra-length due to the flox thickness, so they’re on order.

Fuselage continued…

Seat belts going in. I love Hookers!!

Seat belts installed.

Seat belts installed.

Canopy wiring harness and red/white strip lights going in.

Here’s a hint: don’t even bother with the WH-00126; it’s a generic harness and isn’t likely to match anybody’s requirements exactly – or even very closely. Just use the supplied Molex shells and pins to quickly fab your own.

In my case, I needed to wire the defrost fans, the strip lights, and the canopy warning switch. Easy-peasy. Except, of course, for one task…

Canopy wiring harness and red/white strip lights going in.

This is the beginning of the ugly task/odyssey revolving around running the two wires aft through the left-side canopy frame to the warning switch.

Van’s suggests using a length of safety wire to “fish” the wires down the channel. I tried two thicknesses of safety wire and both got kinked/hung up.

This time around, the safety wire made it through, but got hung up when pulling the copper wires.

Harness and Molex connectors in work.

Another iteration of the effort. No luck.

I tried using old plastic cards (credit cards, driver’s licenses, etc.) to pry the canopy side skin away to make a little more room in the channel. No luck.

Eventually, I had to suck it up and drill the side skin mostly off in order to place the two wires. Then re-riveted and re-screwed. I managed to drill out something like 40 rivets without buggering a single one, so that’s good.

Connectors connected.

Re-riveting underway…

Re-riveting underway…

Job done!

Fuselage interior components ongoing

With Jean’s help this morning, I finally got the yaw damper bridle harness clamps properly adjusted and tightened onto the rudder cables. Thanks, hon!

The corrugated baggage bulkhead cover has gained its ‘Experimental’ decal and been temporarily attached. It’ll come off for the inspection, of course, before being screwed down for keeps.

Passenger-side leather interior panels and armrest installed!

Pilot-side leather interior panels and armrest installed!