Author Archives: pclifton

Elevator rigging wrap-up

No build activity yesterday, thank to some other stuff going on, but today I got a few hours. My idea of gluing the spacer washers inside the elevator bell crank worked out nicely, and I started off today by reinstalling … Continue reading

Posted in Empennage, Fuselage | Hours Logged: 3

Elevator rigging refinement

Not a ton to report tonight, and no photos. My intent was to just have a short work session, mainly focused on getting all the rod ends installed correctly with spacing washers, and their bolts torqued down, to take the … Continue reading

Posted in Empennage, Fuselage | Hours Logged: 1

Elevator rigging – first pass

So…not a ton of detail to provide tonight, despite this being a solid two-hour work session. Basically, what I did was install the control column + sticks into the fuselage, and then rig up the pushrods all the way back … Continue reading

Posted in Empennage, Fuselage | Hours Logged: 2

Control column/stick fitting

As alluded to yesterday, today was all about doing the fitting work for the control stick pivot bushings. The nature of these joints is that the bronze bushing, when its pivot bolt is torqued, will be held in place between … Continue reading

Posted in Fuselage | Hours Logged: 4

Control column stuff

Well, today was mostly a lazy goof-off day, so not a ton of progress. I got the final pushrod done – just had to prime the inside of the thing, get the rod ends inserted and riveted, and that was … Continue reading

Posted in Fuselage | Hours Logged: 1.5

Pushrods. That’s all, just pushrods

No, really, that’s all I did today, just work on pushrods. First up was the large pushrod that will go from the bell crank back to the elevator horns. This one is made from large-diameter, thin-wall tubing. Just trim it … Continue reading

Posted in Empennage, Fuselage | Hours Logged: 3

V-stab mounted, elevator horns drilled

So in between smoking a turkey, eating said turkey, taking the obligatory post-turkey nap, and giving the parents a call, I did find some time to get out and work on the plane. First up was picking up where I … Continue reading

Posted in Empennage, Fuselage | Hours Logged: 1.5

More elevator work

Not a lot of time in the shop tonight, but I did get the elevators fixed up where they move freely. After some more experimentation, I determined that the right elevator was OK, and it was only the left one … Continue reading

Posted in Empennage | Hours Logged: 1

Elevator spacer stuff

So I did hear back from Sterling at Van’s today – as expected, there’s a simple fix for my edge distance issues, and it’s just adding another row of rivets. But for tonight, I decided to go back to working … Continue reading

Posted in Empennage | Hours Logged: 2

V-stab fitting: pt 2

After attending the usual Sunday morning coffee club meeting here at Sport Flyers, and then enjoying some lunch, I got right back to work on getting the stab fitted. When we left off yesterday, I’d done the initial setup of … Continue reading

Posted in Empennage, Fuselage | Hours Logged: 2