The factory has issued an SB 0020 on eyebolt types. Seems I have 25 out of 26 of the defective type 3 . All will need to be replaced! Spent 4 hours removing all eyebolts. The ones on the rudder pedals and inside the ailerons were harder than the others. Lucky for me I was able to do this at an early stage.
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Started the joystick and push rod control system, spent many hours making sure the rods run smoothly. 27/2/2022 – A note on making the controls run smoothly. The design used pushrods and torque tubes running on (?) plastic bushes which are self-lubricating. In fact, they run nice a smoothly. The challenge is that any misalignment of either torque tube (especially in the elevator controls) horizontally or vertically, a fraction of a millimetre will cause the bearings to bind and ruin the smooth flow of the controls, especially the elevator. I spent many many hours carefully aligning and removing fractions of mm from the torque tube clamps in the centre and rear. In addition, when it was all finished I found that I had not fitted the fixing collars on the front control tubes (see pic above) close enough so there was some slop in the elevator. Hey ho, take it apart again and redo it! Now it’s running beautifully, I am very happy with the result of many days’ work. I asked the factory for guidance on the pull force that’s acceptable, they are yet to get back to me.
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First tasks, checking inventory for the quick build fuselage, firewall forward and canopy kits many items missing. The elevator torque tube was very stiff as assembled by the factory. Had to drill out rivets and file down and realign all 4 bushes. A few special tools are needed to drill around corners in a tight space! 5 hours. But hopefully will pay dividends in smooth flight controls later. Adding rivnuts to the inside centre console. Getting good at this now. Having a bigger rivnut puller certainly helps when it can get into the space. Fitted rudder springs mid-fuselage – tricky leaning through the luggage door. Assembled Rudder pedals assembled and clecoed in place for now. Centre console box. Throttle/brake quadrant. All seats assembled (more than >>500 rivets right there) . Front seats backs spray painted with 2K aerosol (RAL 7005 Matt). Lets see if it’s hard wearing enough. Booster pump – learnt about differnt NPT fittings and torquing them. Hand tight + 1.3 turns typically. Dry fit heater and tubes. Naca ducts and fresh air assembly clecoded. Challenging to fit factory assembled elevator rod, eventually did per assembly instructions. From rear with some force and grease through the mid-fuselage grommet! Some have said that the fresh air mixer rattles and doesn’t close completely, so as it’s easy to do at this stage I added some 2 mm craft foam as others have done. Glued down with Gorilla glue.
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