I had a couple of hours today so I went to the hanger to continue working on the center section. While the two sections are still apart the instructions suggest pre-fitting the control column and control stick bases to the aft portion of the center section. WooYoo! working on flight controls makes this seem farther along than it really is. First step was to connect the control column to its respective mounts. The powder coating prevents the AN3 bolt from fitting through the mounts, so the mounts have to be drilled to size. It fits together with four washers (two AN960-10 and 10L on each side.) Unfortunately the washers have to fit in a very tight spot. I used an awl to hold everything aligned and then slowly slid the washers in place while sliding the awl out. It took a few tries but ultimately I got it all connected. Next was fitting the control stick bases to the column. The bases are bolted to the column using a AN4-27 bolt that slides through a lengthy bushing. Vans has cut the bushing close to size but,,, the bushing is too long and its too small for the AN4 bolt. First I slid the bushing inside of the base and slowly sanded it down so the control base would fit inside the control column. Once the bushings and each base fit the control column I took the bushings over to the drill press. I needed to clamp them in place so they would not spin while I was drilling them out. First I drilled a 3/8" hole in a block of wood (the outside diameter of the bushing) and cut the block in two halves. I clamped the bushing between the two halves at the hole, but I could not get enough torque on the wood to keep the bushing from spinning. Next I drilled another block of wood and when I cut it in two I made sure most of the hole was on one side, about seventy-percent. When I went back to the drill press the exposed portion of the bushing (about twenty-percent) provided sufficient contact with the vise that I could keep the bushing from spinning. From then on it was pertty easy to drill out the bushin
