Today’s project took twice as long as I wanted it to, but what else is new? I cut and fitt the control stick pieces. Once I scaled the dimensions from the plans, I drew the centerlines in the jig table and set the blocks. I cut the pieces and got them all fit and bent the jog at the top using heat. I’ve bend 7/8ths .049 cold and it is tougher than Chinese arithmetic. I think symmetry is important here because the first thing they see in the cockpit is the sticks.
The thing that took the most time was deciding on the best way to make the co-pilot’s stick removable. I looked at a number of different options, some easy and some way too complex (but cool). I took the best two ideas and ran them by Bob. He liked option a, and that was to sleeve the stick assembly very similar to proto 1. I ended up using a piece of 1 inch .058 for the horizontal stick piece and the plans 7/8ths .049 for the stub. The fit isn’t super precise, but just a thin coat of paint and an AN3 bolt to secure it will make it fit perfect. I left the 7/8ths tube as long as I could to make it fit. The 1in tube does narrow down toward the front because I smooshed the end to 7/8ths wide. I thought about welding on a stub of 7/8ths and welding the 1 inch piece over that, but it was way overkill. Plus, I smooshed plenty of tubes on the spar carry-throughs and they came out fine. A few slips of scrap .062 sheet for shims to make up for the 1/8th inch difference (1/16th on one side) and the fit was just right on the jig.
Like I said, it took more time than I thought, but it’s a solid installation and will pay off when flying friends up front and not having to worry about them bumping the stick at a bad time.
