As I had found the ominous U-611 discs I was able to install the nose fork this morning. With a fish scale I adjusted the torque to roughly the 26 lbs. of side force to move the fork. I had a fish scale from Germany and so it was in kilograms which equaled 12 kg on the scale. I'm not sure if it is all too accurate so I didn't bother with fine tuning. The taxi tests will have to show if this is the right value or not.
The wheel went on without any issues. And now I also understand why the anti-rotation plates are called that. They are supposed to eliminate, well, rotation of the axle which is holding the rim onto the assembly.
So it was time to lower the nose and put the plane on all three wheels! I added some lead weight in form of bullets on the firewall shelf to ensure it would stay firmly on all wheels.
I made some wheel chocks from some scrap lumber I had lying around. I was done with section 35 except for filling the system with brake fluid. The day was fresh and everything worked out fine and I just couldn't stand the thought of filling the system and then finding a leak or more. So I decided to just skip this step for now until I have more nerves to deal with this.
It was just about 11am at this point and the thermometer in the shop (door open) showed almost a 100F already. Forecast said it should reach about 108F today.
Fortunately, I could close the door and turn on the A/C at this point as I had to prepare some parts on a work bench for a change. The torque tubes for the flaperons had to receive their cushions for connecting to the actuator lever on the flaperon side. I am still not totally sure why Van's goes through such an ordeal attaching them with epoxy. The rivets would have held them in place just fine and pulled back far enough to clear the actuator lever.
Anyway, I followed the plans and drilled the holes out to a #12 and expoxied them in. What a mess! Here you see the parts scuffed up and ready to get glued in.
And then I had to leave the comfort of a 90F degree "cool" shop. It really felt cool when I came back inside from putting the torque tubes in place!
The inboard portion of the tube will have to get match drilled to inboard actuator arm once I have attached the wings and flaperons.
Next step was to install the flap handle assembly. I had held off on that step as long as possible but I need the handle in a certain position for the toque tube match drilling which requires the flap system being fully installed.
The plans asked for an AN3-21A bolt but I had none left, so I used the next size up which was an AN3-35A. Way too long but in this case not a problem. I drove this through the flaperon mixer setup as to lock the flaperons in neutral position.
I noticed that in neutral position my right side stick is leaning towards outboards so I will have to adjust a bit when I'm done with the wing attachment. I didn't want to mess with it today on such a hot day. All the time should go into preparation for the wing fitting that I plan to do tomorrow.
I focused on adjusting the flap knob seating next. It was poking out a bit too far, with a chance to poop out and block the knob. I tried to err on the a tad too deep side and succeeded. With the painted floor panels it might just end up in perfect flush position once everything is installed.
At this point the prep work for the wing attachment was done and all I could do for today was to paint the chocks.
Elizabeth doesn't know it yet but I hope I can recruit her tomorrow for fitting the wings. And if all goes well, maybe even attaching the flaperons and match-drilling the torque tubes. These are the jobs where you really need two people and that will only work on weekends for us.
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