Day 47

Worked on a few assemblies today.

First, our back ordered flap control tube showed up, so we started getting the controls finished up yesterday. Today we were able to finish that. The bulk of the "hard" work was finished yesterday with getting the tubes to move smoothly and getting the seatbelt reinforcement brackets riveted in. Today's work was to finish riveting in the 6 bearing cover plates. Each of them had about 10 rivets that needed to be hand pulled... And our hand riveter was having a hard time. I think it is getting tired. So that took a little while, but we got them. Truly the toughest part was two of the rivets at the top of each bracket are very close to the bearings and do not allow the puller to get flush with the panel. So, we found a nut that was close to the diameter of the rivet head and were able to use that as a spacer to pull against and keep the rivet flush and tight when pulled. (As far as the rivet puller cooperated...)

After all those were completed, we mounted the flap actuator. What they sent in the hardware packet and what they called for in the build manual were slightly different. specifically, the washer amounts and types. There are thin and standard thicknesses. We were able to achieve the same spacing as outlined in the manual, just maybe not with the same sized spacers. We tested the movement of the actuator, and it still has good motion. We installed the castle nuts and made sure not to over tighten them. we put the cotter pins in but have not bent them over yet in case we need to remove the actuator at any point before final assembly.

Another back ordered part that showed up was the last cover plate we needed for finishing the rudder assembly. We took all four and made sure they were even and smooth by clecoing them together and using some 220-grit sandpaper got them taken care of. We cleco'ed everything together to make sure the rudders still moved smoothly and easily, which they did. We then were able to get them all riveted and then checked for ease of movement again. They work great!

The last thing we were able to get done today were the steering control rod boots. They rivet onto the inside of the firewall and help create a seal around the control rods as they move back and forth with the rudder pedals to move the nose gear. We figured out a neat trick for the leather upholstery boots. They have to have holes made to match the backing plate. Drilling them is really tough and messy. Trying to punch them without proper tools is a pit of a pain. So, using an old soldering tool, it burns in the holes perfectly. It also doesn't leave any leftover material, so the rivet passes through very easily. The tricky part was trying to make sure the two sides lined up the way you wanted. It was easy to get turned around, or upside down. So, we made sure to line them up first and mark the tops. Once they were lined up and the holes burned through for the leather, we clecoe'ed them in place and then one at a time pulled them out and riveted them in place. Very happy with how they turned out, and positioned the pull ties in a way that they should be easy to tighten once the rods are installed.