My brother Steve was coming out later in the day to help rivet the lower wing skins, so I decided to try test fitting the gear mounts in the fuselage before he arrived. I knew I was going to have to file the initial holes I'd cut during the earlier stages of construction, but I had no idea how much I would need to remove to get the mounts in.
The nice template that I used to make the holes was about 1/8" short in a couple of places. 1/8" is a lot of metal to remove with a file. The mount, which has two arms coming off at different angles, needs to slide under two nutplates attached to the main spar flange while simultaneously dropping into the hole AND fitting the arms behind the flange of a forward bulkhead. Not easy, but after awhile I was able to make it fit. I will be touching up the powder coating on a few places...it was pretty tight, but the mounts fit and I moved on to the rudder pedals.
The pedals are shown in the photo and really just drop into place. I need to mark and drill the bolt holes that attach the steel tubing and attach blocks, so that will be one of the next sessions.
