Rigging #2: Installing I-Strut & Wires
Posted by Stuart Mackereth in Final Assembly & Rigging on 28 Feb 2010
I installed the flying wires today. They have been safely packed away in a big cardboard tube I got from Steen some years ago, so it was fun to open them up and take a proper look. Two sizes, looked easy enough to install. I quickly found out the attach bracket on the fuselage up by the firewall and landing gear was a few degrees off, and so the clevis was at a slight angle. It was small enough that a whallop or two with a rag wrapped around a mallet actually shifted the angle of the bracket ever so slightly to line up. Great! Then it was simple to thread and have a look at both flying and landing wires installed. All good.. except.. grr.. the javelins I bought from a guy in the US appear to be sized for an S2 not an S1… Ill have to send them back.. !
Next up was leaning up the I-strut ends and drilling the attachment holes. I measured everything carefully and laid the I-Strut on the table to find the right points to drill. When installing the bolts through the I-strut holes on the wings, I found three of them went in easily enough, but the last one looked about 1/8″ out.. !! Not sure why. It may be that when I drill the hole through the bottom attach bracket on the fuselage, it will pull straight, but I decided to just leave it for later.
With this side basically in place, I need to do the other wing in order to rig everything correctly. I ordered an (expensive!) flying wire tensiometer from ACS, as that will be key to getting everything tightened up correctly. When all the dimensions tie up on both sides, I will then be able to install the leading edges, remove the wings, for final cleanup and assembly!
Time taken: 3 hours. Total time: 1097 hours.
Rigging #1
Posted by Stuart Mackereth in Final Assembly & Rigging, General on 23 Feb 2010
Early days to call this rigging, but really it is a high level look to see things fit, in theory, together as they should. I installed the one bolt ion the lower right wing, and propped it up while I clamped the I-struts in place (remembering to put 1/16″ shims to cater for the skins still to come) and then installed the one set of wires to hold the bottom wing up.
Everything seems to fit right.. so far so good.
I’m not finished, as I have all the plywood skins to put on still, but I may stop at this to get he rigging done, then to the leading edge and skins afterwards.
Time taken: 1.5 hours. Total time: 1094 hours.
Lower Wing – Clean up
Posted by Stuart Mackereth in Lower Wings on 21 Feb 2010
Took one of the lower wings off the wall to clean and check before installing on the plan for rigging. Hrm.. it was dusty, had cobwebs, and looked nasty. I guess it has been sitting for 18 months years waiting for this. I also found the one outer hinge that looked a bit skew, and remember this was why I packed the lower wings away as I had gotten too hasty.
I spent ages vacuuming and then air blowing the wings clean. looked them over in detail, an fitted the middle aileron hinge. This is where I had added the doublers do to my errant flying wire hole, and it hadn’t been cleaned up nicely, so I sanded it all down carefully, and re-drilled the holes. The wing underside was still full of hardened drips from the glue, so that took a while to sand and clean up as well, but it started looking better after a while.
I removed the outer hinge (with enormous difficulty) and discovered the doubler block on the outside, when glued, had lean’t up against the one corner block slightly, so that was causing the angle to be out by a few degrees. After filing and varnishing, I replaced the hinge with new bolts and washers and tightened it up, and now it is straight. I’m glad I sorted this out, it had been worrying me. Nothing like a break and fresh start to get quality back up, I’ve noticed. Finally, I re-tensioned the drag wires, and put the split pins in the clevis’ up by the butt rib.
I’m not finished, as I have all the plywood skins to put on still, but I may stop at this to get he rigging done, then to the leading edge and skins afterwards.
Time taken: 3 hours. Total time: 1092.5 hours.
Carbon Fiber Seat Back
Posted by Stuart Mackereth in Fuselage Detail - General on 18 Feb 2010
The carbon fiber seat back from York Enterprises arrived today.. post from Canada is incredibly slow, so I was relieved to see it. Didn’t have much time to play, other than throw it into the fuselage to check it out. It is over sized, of course, so I will need to trim it down to the right size, for the parachute, and for my desired sitting height. I think it looks cool, although my parachute will likely live in the plane, so it won’t ever get seen.
Flying Wire Crush Plates & Trial Fitting
Posted by Stuart Mackereth in General on 14 Feb 2010
Big weekend! I resolved to get the top wing onto the fuselage by end of weekend, and I did it!
First up was to drill the flying wire hole through the front spars, install the crush plates, and drill the I-strut holes. This is quite an important piece of the puzzle. I measured and drilled the holes relatively easily with a hole saw; 72″ from center. Then I clamped the crush plates in place and drilled the attach holes through the spars. Everything lined up, even though I drilled by eyeball only. I then filled the holes with epoxy with a syringe, and ensure all inner surfaces had a good soak.
The I-Strut holes holes were more nerve wracking. I drilled the holes, again 5/8″ inside of the fire holes). I actually did the eyeball approach by standing on the table above the wing, and it went fine on three of the holes. In fact, the holes were perfect. I was pleased. The 4th hole I rushed a little as I was now over confident, and the bit wandered to the side by 1/8″ .. grr. Fortunately it was spanwise down the spar outwards, not towards the sides. I filled the hole with epoxy, let it dry,. and drilled it again. This time it came out perfect. Looks like the drill wandered only towards the end, so the hole was pretty much in exactly the same place top to bottom, except for the last inch or so, where there is a tiny side wall of epoxy.
After leaving everything to dry, and bolting everything up, I got Nadine to help me carry the wing to the fuselage and try install it.
(On Valentine’s day too… This woman of mine deserves all love and praise!!)
I had checked beforehand the cabane bushings were spaced correctly to the wing brackets. It just so happened they were perfect from the start, so no initial adjustment required. The cabane holes needed some minor reaming again as after I cut the inner tube out they had moved ever so slightly (years ago now). After just running a drill through them, they were fine. The front bolt just popped in perfectly, and the back bolt slid in all the way to the back, but got caught by 1/32″ at the rear plate of the rear attach. Obviously a slight misalignment of the two rear center brackets. I moved the wing about to try get it to fall in place, but it wouldn’t budge. In hindsight, that’s good – it’s supposed to be stiff here in the center. At the wing tips, the wings can shift slightly about 1/2″ up/down and left/right (normal), but will get locked in place with the I-struts and wires.
After some thought, I decided to run the a drill bit through the front bracket, right through the cabane bushing, and push it through to widen the hole at the rear. This means the rear bracket hole is ever so slightly oval. After cleaning everything up, and having another look at it, I could hardly see the oval, so satisfied, deburred the hole, and ran the bolt through.
Hey hey 
my baby has a wing.. I left them alone to get used to each other to fetch the camera!
Time taken: 4.5 hours. Total time: 1089.5 hours.