Today I got my shipment from Spruce, which included a new stock of 3/8” tubing for that last remaining fuel line. I decided to work on that and continue punting on the whole brake line issue. I hacked up my previous failed attempt at this line and used it to prototype the shape of the finished product. Amusingly enough, there was actually still enough tubing to have made this line without the new stuff – but that’s OK, because this prototype was still not quite up to my standards. But it made a great template for the final product.
Here’s where the line will exit the right side of the fuselage. Note that there’s a 90° forward bend here, unlike the straight-out exit of the left line. This is to accommodate the flop tube in the right tank. The regular fuel pickup exits the tank near the back, but the flop tube exits up at the nose of the tank. So this line must run forward, parallel to the fuselage, and through the inboard tank mount to connect to the flop tube fitting. There will be a union fitting here to connect the short line up to the pickup fitting. This is presumably to ensure that this line can be removed after the fuselage is complete if necessary. (The B-nut isn’t visible here because it wouldn’t fit through the hole in my template. Don’t worry, I didn’t forget it.)
Same location, from inboard. This shows how the line is attached to the center section web to cross the fuselage, and then there’s a jog to get it to the proper location to exit the fuselage:
And finally, all the lines in place under the fuel selector valve:
Hopefully tomorrow I should get in my parts order from Van’s, which will contain the fittings I need to do the brake lines. I needed two more 90° bulkhead fittings for these lines; when I worked on them last night, it was with the knowledge that I’d only be able to have one line in place at a time. Once I have all the fittings, I can put everything in place at once. If I don’t get the order from Van’s, I can always go back to the rudder pedal assembly, since I got my #12 drill bit restock in today as well.