January 12, 2005 - Wing

My goal for the evening was to bolt the bellcrank in place.  First I had to bolt down the bellcrank brackets.  To do that I had to find the correct bolts.  After I did that I quickly discovered the bolts would not fit through the bracket hole so I had to drill them out.  Then I wondered if all the bracket and bellcrank holes needed to be drilled out.  They did, of course.  So I drilled everything out, including the hinge brackets on the aileron. 

Then I collected all the correct bolts, washers and nuts.  This was time-consuming as Van’s has the bolts scattered in three different bags.  When I bought the Kitfox, it came with all this aviation hardware neatly arranged in organizers.  This was very useful to me in identifying the right size bolts. 

Then I realized I needed to fashion the spacers.  Next I had to ream out the copper bushings.  Got a tip on how to do that from the Avery tool catalog.  I drilled a ¼” hole in a 2x4 piece of wood – not all the way through.  I inserted the bushing into it, then clamped the 2x4 to the drill press.  Then drilled out the bushing.  It worked pretty well, actually, although I had to use a circular file to ream the bushing out just a little bit more to get the AN-3 bolt to swing freely in it. 
The Bellcrank. 

I really want to put in a TruTrak single-axis autopilot and this is where the servo goes.  But I don't want to buy it this early because the things improve every year.  But there's no rush.  I'll just leave the bottom skins off until the last possible moment. 

The Bellcrank with the short Aileron control rod attached.  Also seen in the picture is the W-730 bellcrank jig -- still has its blue vinyl.  The jig keeps the aileron positioned in the vertical position..
Th Aileron is attached! 
Another angle.  I'm not attaching the aileron permanently because it has to be off for me to get the wing through my basement window. 
 
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