Brief Description: Mounting the Control Stick Assembly Part 1
Well, it came time to weld the mounts for the control stick assembly to the fuselage and I tried it like a few others had done, and that is bolting the mounts to the rings and trying to hold it all in place to tack weld the mounts and ensure they were as level as could be with the top of the longerons. I fiddled with this for about a half an hour and thought there had to be a better way…it just wasn’t working to try to hold it all with clamps and such at the right angle. So I decided to use a different approach. I marked the proper position of the mount rings on the stick and moved them to the proper position with the mounts bolted to them. I then held the stick assembly tight against the fuselage tube, centered, at Station C and marked where the mounts were supposed to be on the fuselage tube. I then took it all apart and laid a straight edge along the tubes and clamped the mounts to the straight edge to line up with the marks I had made. Since the mounts are match-drilled, I made sure to label them right and left before I removed them from the stick mounts. I put additional clamps to hold them snug against the tube then tacked them in place. It worked great! I test fit the sticks again and the bolts dropped into place. I was just about ready to weld the mounts when I thought I had better check the alignment of the aileron cables with the future pulley mount location…they were too far forward for a straight pull! Eric Newton mentions the cable should be 2 inches or less from the center of the strut mount hole so it enters the wing lift strut at the proper place. Just less than 2 inches was too close for comfort, so I looked at pictures I had saved of other’s installations. They all were much closer to the tube at Station C than the mounts drilled according to the plans. As a matter of fact, the mounts were too long. On to part 2…
