Tag Archives: inventory

Building a Front Seat

Hours: 3

It’s time to replace the now empty box of parts in the Garage with another full one. I moved on to the Fuselage box to get started with the interior of the Fuselage assembly. First order of business was finding all the parts for the seats.

After a bit of digging I found all the parts for the seats based on the inventory checklist in the box.

Laying out parts for the seat assembly

Once I had all parts in order, I started laying out the headrest based on the manual.

Ribs for the headrest
Ribs for the headrest clecoed

Then I clecoed it all onto the seat back and started riveting from the seatback.

Riveting the front of the headrest

Following the backside, riveting the front side of the headrest.

Headrest riveted

With the headrest completed, time to make it look like a seat. I checked out the detail diagrams for the hinges and put everything together. The holes of the hinges needed a tiny bit of enlarging which I did using a simple hand deburring tool.

Seat hinges needed minimal enlarging to fit the linkage

Once I had the side hinges completed, I cleoed and riveted the bottom hinge of the seat in place.

Riveting the bottom seat hinge
Riveted the bottom seat hinge

Almost looks like a seat:

Seat almost completed

Assembling the bolt mechanism

The only thing left is the bolt mechanism that allows the seat to lock in place inside the Fuselage.

Laying out the bolting mechanism

Unfortunately, this is where I found out I was missing something. The bolt that allows the pulley to pull the cable wasn’t quite long enough. It should be a AN3-6A bolt, but as it turns out, it’s a 5A bolt, so it’s missing the mark by just a hair.

That bolt is unfortunately only -5 long

Also I only got one bolt, set of washers and screws for the hinges, which (if it was the right length) is only enough to complete one seat, so I put in an order for the few parts and will give them a call in Torrance to see if they can send they few screws so I can complete the seats.

Here’s a picture of test fitting the mechanism with the slightly too short bolt:

Half assembled mechanism to see how it functions.

Flaps priming & Aileron inventory

Hours: 4

After having completed the inventory and preparing the edges and holes of the Flaps the other day, I went ahead to prime them so I can start assembling them.

As it turns out, cleaning the parts is a great time to chat with my mom over the phone, so she got to watch while I sat on my stool to give the parts a scrub using some Simple Green Cleaner to get them ready for priming.
Flaps parts laid out ready to clean Flaps parts ready for priming

Once that was done, I unfolded my small paint booth and primed all the ribs of the flaps.
Ready to prime the Flaps ribs Flaps ribs primed

Aileron parts inventory

With the Flaps primer drying, I moved on to unpack the Aileron parts and prepare them to prime next.

Unfortunately one set of ribs have some dents from the factory, so I will need replacements for those. The other parts were okay and just needed the usual treatment of deburring some of the edges and holes.
Dents in Aileron rib 2 Dents in Aileron rib 2

Then I went on a scavenger hunt to try to find an Eyebolt and Nut to go with the ribs as they weren’t in any of the bags of the Aileron assembly and eventually I figured that it might be on the pushrod that it threads into and I remembered that I have a separate Tube labelled Control Pushrods. So after opening that tube and pulling out a well packed bubble-wrap bundle I eventually found the rods for the Ailerons, and while I was at it, also the Flaps and attached to them were the Eyebolts and the nut mentioned.
Eyebolt mentioned in the Aileron assembly

The last thing I could not find, were the AN4-16A bolts, which are mentioned in the assembly instructions, but were not in the shipping manifest, so I added a request for those bolts together with the replacement for the damaged ribs.
I also found that I don’t have any 4.8x10mm rivets (HW-RIV-163) which I need for the Flaps assembly and those were also missing in the packing list, but need to be able to rivet some of the hinges onto the Flaps.

Hopefully I can get those replacements and missing parts soon so I can cut down on half-ready assemblies between the Elevator, Flaps & Ailerons.
Aileron parts laid out after I finished inspecting and deburring everything

Flaps & Aileron inventory and parts inspection

Hours: 2

I’m currently still waiting for the correct Elevator ribs from the Factory before I can continue to complete the Empennage. So in the meantime I’ve moved on to get started on the Wings. First order of business is the Ailerons and Flaps, starting with doing the inventory and parts check.

First I had to find the sub assemblies for the Flaps and Ailerons in the Wings crate. After a bit of digging, I got all the bags that had to do with those two parts out and then starting laying them out to check them off the packing list.
Wing crate opened and time to dig out the parts for the Flaps and Ailerons Skins for Flaps and Ailerons present

Once I had all the bags laid out, I started to check them off the inventory checklist and got out my tools for deburring a couple of sharp edges and holes.
Bags of Flap assembly parts ready to be checked Bags of Aileron assembly ready to be checked

I confirmed that I got all the parts out of the crate and went back once to find the Aileron balance tubes. Then I started to get going on removing the protective plastic from the Flaps parts and inspecting the parts, marking each part along the way. There were a couple of sharp edges and holes, but by and large most parts were good to go.
Inspecting and labeling the Flaps ribs Done with inspecting and deburring all the parts of the Flaps