Sunday, April 06, 2008

Saturday night saw three hours of progress.

The first draft of layout for the instrument panel was done. I found various pictures of the planed instruments and then printed them out at actual size. Some items got a hand drawn picture as a placeholder. A single piece of tape was used for each "instrument" or "control" to hold it onto the panel. Everything is very easily repositioned.

The instrument plane's flange was also drilled in preparation for the dashboard, and a piece of ("L") was drilled into place that holds the instrument plane at equidistance from the firewall.

I laid out and cut 7F14-2 per the plans, and had to open up the holes to make it fit well. The holes extend too far forward and are too wide at the inside to be a perfect fit. A much better plan would have been to cut a template from cardboard THEN use that to make the real piece. In the end I am going to cover the dashboard anyway with upholstery, but anyone wanting to keep it as bare metal may want to take precautions.

The big issue of the night was with the instrument plane and some ("L") angle that runs from it forward. The basic idea of the piece is to be even along the top edge with 7F14-3, the forward side skin. The problem is that a crimp in the flange of the instrument plane would interfere with it.

The obvious solution seems to move the ("L") down ~10mm, but since 7F14-6R ( aluminum plate ) is already drilled into position, I can not trim the side skin to be even. Given the size of 7F14-4 ( top skin ) there may be enough play for it to not matter.



PROGRESS:
Fuselage ~211h ( 3h, 3h, 2h, 3h, 7h, 2h, 5h, 2h, 3h, 2h, 2h, 3h, 6h, 2h, 2h, 1.5h, 2.5h, 1h, 2h, 3h, 2h, 3h, 4h, 1h, 2h, 1h, 3h, 4h, 3h, 3h, 4h, 3h, 4h, 4h, 6h, 3h, 3h, 4h, 2h, 2h, 2h, 4h, 2h, 2h, 10h, 4h, 4h, 6h, 3h, 4h , 6h, 3h, 2h, 2h, 5h, 2h, 3h, 3h, 2h , 2h, 3h, 4h, 1h, 1h, 1h, 1h, 3h )
Wings: ~157.5h ( 1h, 1h, 0.5h, 2.5h, 4h, 1h, 1.5h, 1h, 1.5, 4.5, 1h, 1h, 2h, 4h, 1h, 3h, 1h, 2h, .5h, 1.5h, 2h, 2h, 2h, .5h, 1h, .5h, .5h, 2h,3h, 1h, 3h, 3h, 4h, 2h, 3h, 7h, 3h, 1h, 4h, 1h, 1h, 1h, 4h, 2h, 2h, 2h, 2h, 1h, 2h, 3h, 2h, 1h, 3h, 2h, 2h, 1h, 2h, 3h, 2h, 1h, 1h, 1.5, 2h, 2h, 3h, 2h, 1h, 3h, 2h, 1h, 2h, 1h, 5h, 2h, 1h, 2h, 4h, 2h, 3h, 3h, 3h, 3h )
Flaperons: ( DONE! ) 23.5 hours spent ( 3h, 1h, 1h, 1h, 1.5h, 3h, 6h, 3h, 4h, 1h )
Paint Design: 2 hours spent ( 1h, 1h )
Elevator DONE!: ~31.5 hours spent ( 3h, 1.5h, 3h, .5h, 3.5h, 2h, 4h, 1.5h, 2h, 4.5h, 1h, 6h )
Horizontal Stabilizer DONE!: ~28 hours spent, 3 pieces replaced ( 3h, 2h, 2h, 2h, .5h, 1.5h, 3.5h, 1.5h, 5, 4.5, 2h, .5h )
Rudder DONE!, minus horn : ~16 hours spent, ( ~8h, ~8h )
-----------------------
Total Done: ~473h