Rudder Floor Plates Mount

This blog  covers the drilling for attaching the pilots rudder floor plate.

Overview
The floor plates on this model are secured to the fuselage side and requires match drilling.

Installation
The first task was to mark the starting reference aligned with the rivets on the fuselage sides. To do this a scrap piece of aluminium was cut into at a right angle and secured to the fuselage side with masking tape. With the aluminium aligned with the lower stringer the position of the fuselage rivet was transferred to the stringer.

Locating starting reference

The next task was to level the floor plate and establish the rivet line along the floor plate. To do this a length of 20 x 12 mm aluminium channel was secured to the side of the fuselage using spring clamps secured to the fuselage bulkheads. With the edge distance set using two cardboard stops fixed to the floor plate with double sided tape.  Next the channel was aligned to the rivet line with a cardboard template [refer photo] and finally the rivet line was marked along the face of the plate. 

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Once this was done the hole centres were marked at 40 mm about the initial reference point and then drilled 3.2 mm [1/8'']

Note: A tapered packer was required at the side shown to fix a misalignment between the skin and the floor plate. This task may have been better done before installing the rudder pedals floor plates from a installation procedure perspective.

Once the side skin was installed the holes were matched drilled through the fuselage skin and clecoed. 

Comment
Turned out well.