January 1, 2007 - VS Rear Spar, Crotch Strap Bracket |
||||||
| The vertical stab rear spar was bolted to the elevator stop and the VS front spar was bolted to the attach bracket, so the last thing to do was the VS lower rear spar. I match-drilled the two upper holes, using an angle drill from inside the fuse, using the tailwheel bracket as a template. | ||||||
 |
||||||
|
I stuck the angle drill bit through the inspection port.
|
||||||
 |
||||||
| The angle drill bit would reach the third, lower hole, so I just stuck the tip of the Sharpie pen through the tailwheel bracket hole and marked the VS rear spar. Then I just manually drilled it to #30. | ||||||
 |
||||||
|
Looks nice.
|
||||||
 |
||||||
| I drilled all three holes to #12. They'll eventually need to get drilled to 1/4" to accept AN-4 bolts, but I'm waiting on a reamer I ordered to arrive to do that. | ||||||
 |
||||||
| Back to the crotch strap bracket install. An AN-5 bolt goes through the rear bracket, then strap bushing, then forward bracket. I "pre-flighted" the AN-5 bolt through the strap bushing and of course it wasn't even close. I had to use the needle file on the inside of the bushing for awhile to get the bolt to go through. | ||||||
 |
||||||
| The rear bracket was clecoed to the seat ribs. I put a 1/8" spacer on the front face of the rear bracket, then put the forward bracket into position. I match-drilled the seat ribs again, using the forward bracket as a template. You could not do this particular job without an angle drill. | ||||||
 |
||||||
|
Both the front and rear brackets are clecoed in.
|
||||||
 |
||||||
| I screwed the seat floor down and match-drilled the top flanges of the brackets, using the seat floor as a template. That's a bar of 1/8" thick aluminum sticking out from between the brackets. The bar worked well for me as a spacer. | ||||||
 |
||||||
|
I took the seat floor off, then match-drilled to #19 the hole where the
AN-5 bolt will go through. Then I removed the brackets from the
fuse and expanded the #19 hole with the unibit so that the bushing would
fit.
|
||||||
 |
||||||
| The Hooker Harness crotch strap resting between the two brackets. You can sort of see the bushing in the bracket hole. I can see I'm going to have a problem with the strap being a lot wider than the 1/8" bracket spacing. Nothing is ever easy on this project! | ||||||
 |
||||||