Had a solid day of work in the shop. My goal was to get the rollbar, and final top skin fitted.  I started by finishing the riveting on the canopy frame and mounting brackets.  Here are the very messy rivets that hold the angle to the bulkhead. I don’t have any tools that could get…

Today I spent a few hours working on the copilot’s seat and crotch strap anchor. It’s an awkward part to rivet in, but I eventually got it.  Here you can see it riveted between the seat ribs just to the right of the copilot’s stick attachment (Stick is removed for now). Once I match drilled…

Today I spent a few hours prepping the aft seat pans for riveting. I wanted to install the two remaining antennas on the underside of the fuse. This includes the transponder and ADSB antennas. Both are blade style antennas.  I used the provided templates to ensure alignment. And I centered the antenna between the two…

This weekend I spent some time working on some more fuse work. I started by assembling the elevator bellcrank.  Once I match drilled the parts together I measured and drilled the hole for the autopilot pushrod. I then disassembled and primed all the parts and riveted it together.  I also installed the autopilot servo temporarily…

I got several orders from Aircraft Spruce in the mail today including 3 of the antennas I’m going to use in my plane. One is the Comm radio antenna. It’s a “bent whip” style antenna that will mount to the underside of the plane.  I measured and marked the center line in the fuse behind…

Today I spent a few hours doing some more work for the flap installation as well as work on the baggage bulkhead.  I started by riveting all the nutplates to the rear channel support.  I installed it in the fuselage and installed the side panel covers to match drill the screw holes. There are 4…

My goal for today was to get the flap motor mounted to the center channel that houses it.  I started by drilling the holes in the motor arm to safety wire the bearing to the actuator. The motor uses a screw gear to raise and lower the flaps, and if this were to ever get…

Tonight I spent a couple hours drilling the rudder pedal assembly to the fuselage. I began by measuring and marking the skin stiffener 3″ back from the firewall.  I initially marked the hole locations and then made the 2 additional mounting locations. Here you can see the rudder pedal bearing block in the middle position. …

No pictures tonight, but I spent about an hour on the seatback supports. It consists of 3 pieces per side, a spacer, a bent piece of Alclad, and an angle. The assembly is riveted together and allows for 2 intermediate stops for the seatback to adjust the angle of the back. I’m planning on using…

Got a few hours to work on the plane today. I temporarily fit the roll bar.  Here you can see the bracket doesn’t fit one top of the flange. For the tip up canopy it needs to be trimmed.  Here I’ve marked where I need to cut the metal.  This is after I’ve removed the…