Miscellaneous Work

Time: 3.5 hrs

More random stuff done on the plane:

• Drilled extra holes in parachute skin and cut out edges as per other holes. Drilled holes in fuselage for new parachute skin holes
• Installed vertical stabilizer covers
• Messed around with remaining parts for canopy (door gas strut, various screws, etc.)
• Temporary install of cabin heat and choke cables (need to be cut)
• Messed around with mock up instrument panel and GTN650 fitting

I added 3 more rivets on the front of the parachute skin and two in the back near the antenna. Also had to cut the notches so the skin can slide out under the rivets when teh parachute is deployed.

Fits much better now

And also in the back

I saw on Peter C’s build log that he installed these (RF-SKN-008-C-A-0) so I dug them out of the box and installed them as well. One less part to have lying around and having to figure out where it goes.

To install the cover skins you have to remove two rivets and install M3 rivnuts.

The cover skins attach with M3 screws. These will need to be removed when the empennage goes on, but for now I’ll just leave them here. I’ll also need to prime the inside when I do the wings (and have the primer spray out).

I temporarily installed the choke and cabin heater cables. These aren’t supplied by TAF so they will need to be cut to size. I was hoping that I could install these before the instrument panel gets installed because I have to tighten a nut on the inside of the firewall where the bulkhead fitting goes through, but the cables are designed to be fed through the front of the panel so change in plans.

I cut a block of foam to the size of the GTN650 including the connectors (11.27″ deep) and glued it to the back of my mock up panel (which is actually fairly accurate to size). This is an old mock up, quite a few things have changed, but it will still work for this purpose.

Well someday it will look like this for real, but until then I have the paper version 🙂 I looked behind the panel and it seems like there is about 2-3″ of space between the back of the foam (fake GTN650) and the rib so with wires attached there’s not much space behind the GTN650 for anything to be mounted on the rib.