Working on the seat

Well I have not posted in a while, but there has been a lot going on. We have been trying to make the controls. The problem with this is that because we are moving the seat back about 3" I am worried how this will affect the controls. This is why I want to finalize the cabin area. This starts with seats. We widened the cabin to 42". This is 2" wider than the stock plans. I figured since there will be 2 more inches in the cabin that I would make each seat 1" wider. I also made it 3" longer. I hope it all works out. We shall see.

Firewall pulled in

This is the btm tube of the firewall. We have made our fuse 42". This makes our firewall dim 41" as apposed to 39". We used a bar clamp to pull the btm longerons into place. Dad did a good job of fitting this tube and for some reason when it got tacked into place there was a gap. You can see it in the pic above. Not a big deal, it will fill, just annoying.

Seat front spar

This is where the front of the seat will rest. We will have to smash the top edge of the tube to match the btm of the door jam.

Tall Boy modification

This x-member is supposed to intersect at the main intersection. We have tacked our x-member 3" back per a conversation with Earl Luce. We tacked it lightly because it might get moved.

Tail spring attach cross member

This is the tail spring attach x-member. It is ovalized 3/4 .035 tubing. We smashed it cold.

We would have put in the tail post & horizontal stabilizer spar but for some reason do not have the correct tubing.

Pulling tail together

This is looking back from the firewall. At this point all but 1 crossmember aft of the cabin are installed. The last piece will be put in when the tail spring is installed.

Big head!

Bringing the tail together took some work. We worked our way back 1 section at a time. At each station we would put the x-members in first, square that up then put in the diagonal. We would then put in the top and btm diagonals, all the while trying to keep it square and on center line. The problem with this is, as you work your way to the tail the frame gets real strong and its hard to get it where you want it. The curves in the longerons make things worse. In the end we think we got it where we want it. There might be an advantage in starting with the tail tacked together and working towards the firewall.

Spar joint fittings

More pics of the front cabin spar.

Front spar carry through

This looks better in person. We have made this piece twice. The first time we made it come to the center of the longerons. According to the plans it is supposed to come out flush with the outside of the longerons.

Welding away

Here I am tacking the lower rear crossmember.

This is what we got at the end of the day. So far we are real happy with how square it is. We use a scrap piece of pipe to complete the box where the rear spar carry through will be. According to Earl you should sit in your frame and make airplane noises before anything is finalized on the cabin. I am a tall guy (6'4") so we will be moving the seat back 3" or so. The girls were real good today.

Making a box

Todays job was to get all the cross members in the cabin area. We are making the big boy version (42").

Broken TV

Today we worked on the fuse again. It was a cold day. I needed to have my kids with me so I dressed the real warm and set them up some movies in the hangar. If you look you will see that the TV plastic is all destroyed. My mother-in-law gave me this TV because the plastic started to crack off of it. Now there is no plastic left on it but it gets great reception with a piece of safety wire for an antenna. I had an old DVD player that I hooked up to it. Worked great. Note the speakers.

Full Size Rib

Here is how I did my full size ribs. I will use this rib as a template for the leading edge as well as for the rest of the full ribs. My trim bit in my router should make quick work of the rest of the full size ribs.