8/26/2012 Bottom of Fuselage Connected

This was a busy day for me.  I located and drilled the locations for the pedals on the cabin floor.

I had to trim the left side pedal bearing to allow it to fit in the pedal channel while keeping the pedal shaft parallel to the channel.  This doesn't leave a lot of room for the bolt hole.  Hopefully I can still fit it in while maintaining an appropriate edge distance.

Then I added the seat back and gear channel, after trimming for the difference in width between the cabin floor and the forward edge of the bottom skin.

Used the laser to line up the cabin floor with the rear fuselage.  The laser is a lot more convenient than a chalk line.

Then I positioned and drilled the center spar on the cabin floor.  Only one set of holes was pre-drilled, while from the drawings and the homebuilt help video I expected two lines of holes.  I located and drilled a forward rivet line 55 mm forward of the line of pre-drilled holes, as indicated by the plans. Seemed to hit the center of the flange on the center spar, so that was comforting.  Anyway, here's what the bottom of the plane looks like now:

I ended this busy day by starting on the firewall.  It was cool to find that there were pre-drilled holes both in the firewall and the top stiffener, so it was already match-drilled.  Hoping to get more done on the firewall with my son helping tomorrow.

8/25 Cabin Floor

I finished riveting the rear fuselage - doing the parts with the A5 rivets, on the thicker, extruded longerons.  I discovered I riveted the top rear, which I wasn't supposed to do yet.  Oops.  We'll see how many I have to drill out later.

With the rear fuselage riveted, I started on the cabin floor.
Drilled, clecoed, and located the heel support, pedal channel, floor stiffener, and two extruded longerons.  I had to cut angles on the ends of the longerons.

8/19/12 Rudder cable exit fairleads and fairings

Located upper rudder hinge and checked with laser.  Drilled, clecoed, and located side rudder cable outlet fairings and fairleads.  Still wondering if I should locate fairleads inside of rear skins (Homebuilt help DVD) or outside of skins (Zenith plans and photo assembly guide.  Will leave them un-riveted for now, so I can waffle on this decision a little longer :)

Can see the hole & slot nicely through the inside.

Okay, now just need some time in the hangar to finish up riveting the rear of the fuselage.  With back-to school shopping last weekend, and two conference calls (Japan and China) tomorrow night, it will be Thursday before I'm back out in the hangar.

8/10 - 8/11/2012 Rear Fuselage Side Skins

Drilled and clecoed "L" angles to the side skins.  Drilled, clecoed, and attached side skins to the bottom skin / longeron area.

Used Plumb bob and laser to check alignment of HT frames and top rudder opening skin.

Top section visible here:

8/16/2012
Re-aligned and drilled out to A4, using laser to insure alignment.  Also added top rudder hinge.

8/7-8/8/2012

Mounted and joggled Z stiffeners, and the stiffeners around the access door in the bottom skin.  Also mounted upper and lower rudder bottom hinge.  Also the tail tie-down ring.  See below:

Drilled A5 holes on bottom, finished drilling and started deburring.

8/2/12, 8/5/12 Bottom rear fuselage skin

Drilled and clecoed 6B1/1 and 6B/2 (front and rear horizontal tail frames), plus the two most rearward "L" angles to the bottom skin.  Also marked (& cut later) the nylon cutouts for the fairleads.

Bottom skin longerons, front, back, and the splice were drilled and clecoed.

7/28 - 29/2012 Wired Nav/strobe & positioned wing tip

Today I attached the LED Nav/Strobe to the fiberglass wing tip, and wired the connector.

Pin1 - red - Nav
Pin2 - black/white - ground (negative)
Pin3 - green - synchronization
Pin 5 - yellow - strobe.

Attached the fiberglass wing tip to end of left wind, drilled & clecoed for A4 rivets.  Decided to leave it un-riveted so I can get even longer  bolts for counter-weight / aileron balance.

Hung the right wing using 3 shelf hangers and 3 ratcheting straps.

Next day I hung the other wing.

Then I leveled the table and positioned it in the stem of the "T" hangar, for building the fuselage.  I opened the fuselage box.  I located the bottom skin, and then drew centerlines.  Then I cleaned up and took out the trash.

7/7/2012 Fit Aileron and balance weights

First attached left wing flap.  then used flap to help position the aileron - leaving enough space for aileron and flap to work without rubbing.
Need to pre-drill holes for aileron balance weights.
Need to thread aileron trim cable from wing into aileron grommetted hole.
Need to enlarge hole for balance arm in the rear spar.

Perhaps because this aileron has trim tab, the number of shims / weights needed to counterbalance the aileron makes it so the AN3-30A bolts don't quite stick through the balance arm.

Four potential solutions that I can think of:

1.  Larger bolts - need to purchase, maybe from Aircraft Spruce, easy fix.
2.  More wights out on arm (larger lever) downside is that the arm will interfere w/ skin and limit aileron deflection too much.
3.  "Crush arm so that bolts sick thru anyway.  May weaken, probably not crucial, but not aesthetically pleasing.
4.  Put one weight "inside" balance arm (diagonally) and drill through.  More mass w/o more width.

Ended up using both #1 and #4.

7/6/2012 Finish fuel tank and wiring, rivet wing.

Started at 9 AM.  Left for lunch at 1:26 PM, back at 3:30 PM, then finished at 4:30 PM.

Attached fuel tank ground wire, and fuel gauge ground wire.

Re-leveled wing, deburred top skin, riveted top skin, Aft 1/2, then finished riveting, except for the aileron.

7/5/2012 Fuel Line and Fuel tank

Removed some cork from the fuel tank, set it in place.  Attched AN-6 fuel line.  Placed grommets in holes to protect fuel line.

I spent a lot of time thinking over whether I should put the fuel sender in the inboard end of the tank, or on the top of the inboard half of the tank.  Less likely to leak at the top, but easier to access at the end.  Zenith older planes and the AMD planes put it on top.  But the latest drawings and assembly guide and Homebuilt help DVD all show it in the end.  So I put it in the end with a lot of fuel lube to seal it.

6/30/2012 Wiring Left Wing

Started at 8:50 AM, finished at 12:45 PM

Bought trash can and more cable ties.  Ran wires using double cable tie method through forward lightening hole.

This way I don't have to drill bigger holes and use grommets.  The use of two cable ties was a method recommended in the Zenith photo guide.
Following table for the color code for the Nav/Strobe LED light
Green 16:  Synchronization for strobes on both wings.
Yellow 16: Strobe Power
Red 16: Nav / Position power
White 16:  ground (negative) local.
Blue & White 16 ga. - Taxi and Landing lights.
Black & White general purpose wire - future stall horn
3 16 gauge white ground wires in last bay
1 18 gauge wire marked with blue and white stripes in 5th bay in case needed for stall horn.

Pitot and static - cut poly tubing in 1/2.  Inserted into urethane tube on pitot/static tubes.  Used hose clamp to hold, and threaded thru 2nd hole from forward of rear ribs.  Used double cable ties to keep from rubbing on metal edges and lightening holes.

Deburred rear ribs, front spar, nose ribs, and underside of nose skin.  did nutplate for fuel connection access on left wing.

June 29th 2012

Started at 8 PM and ended at 9"15 PM
Started by filing smooth the hole in Left Wing rear spar for the aileron balance arm.

Drilled hole and placed grommet for aileron trim cable.  Drilled 3/8" hole, put in grommet, ran cable thru forward-most lightening holes of rear ribs.  10" left sticking out to attach to aileron trim tab.

Threaded red, green, and yellow 16 ga. mil spec wire for Nav/StrobeSync thru spar end lightening hole and through forward most rear rib lightening holes.  Also threaded blue and white wires thru for landing and taxi lights.

Was going to do cable ties, but I think I left them at home :(

Threaded stainless braided AN-6 fuel line through 1st two nose ribs w/ grommets.  Put on Female AN-6 fitting using the Kool Tool.  Will refit grommets arond AN-6 hose tomorrow.  Trying to get home early!