Elevator Hinges - Part 3

Before fitting the D Nose the hinges were assembled and installed.

All components are supplied with the kit but required assembly by the builder. The mounting angles are counter bored on the inside face to accept the spherical bearings supplied. As part of the installation are eight [8] turned aluminium spacers and they are easily lost - wire them together until needed.

Installing Bearings
Aluminium sheet is for protection when
driving the bearing

The bearings are a press fit and required a firm wack to install them. The edge of the bearing's were dressed using a points file by drawing it backwards around the rim perimeter to refine the rim. With the bearing inserted squarely on the opening it was driven using a 3/8'' diameter x 1/4'' drive socket placed on the rim and struck firmly with the 8 ounce hammer.

Once assembled the two half were brought into alignment using the 8 oz hammer. 

Note: A aluminium scrap was used on both side's for protection of the hinge.

Ready to assemble

The aluminium spacers are fitted at both sides using the 2 oz hammer. A couple were a loose fit and were treated Loctite at assembly ensuring that none lodged on the bearing. At this point wire up each assembly using lock wire as they can be lost and are a bear to find. 

The required AN3 bolts and washers were assembled and fixed using the previously installed captive nuts.

Stab Hinges - Part 4

The final job on the stab is to fit the hinges. Located the factory supplied hinges, AN3 bolts and washers for installation, this was straight forward requiring only installation of the angle brackets using the previously installed captive nuts. 

The angles were primed before installation as was the rear of the spar area. 

Reaming mounting holes

To ensure correct alignment all mounting holes were chased with a tapered reamer in the battery drill. Fixing can be either nylock or castellated nuts with latter begin chosen. The reasoning was that even thought no relative movement can occur as installed but due to the exterior position and lack of seals it is remotely possible for that to occur - erred on the side of caution.

Trail Assembly

Elevator Stab Install - Part 3

With the stab completed the excerise is to install it onto the air-frame. Locating the front and rear mounting brackets these were reamed 3/16'' and 1/4'' as required using a tapered reamer and battery drill, finally the mounting holes in the rear bulkhead were reamed a 1/4''. 

As the mounting bolts project perpendicular from the face or the spar the holes were reamed parallel to the side of the fuselage to aid installation of the bolts. 

Reaming mounting holes bulkhead

Two tapered spacers are provided with the kit to correct the angle between the front spar of the stab to bulkhead. A vernier was used to locate the thickest section of the spacer which was then marked with yellow paint pen and finally the holes reamed to a 1/4'' using the tapered reamer.

The mounting brackets are fixed to the spar using the specified AN3 bolts and washers through the access panel. 

Next the specified AN4 were fitted through the spar and the lower mounting with the spacers fitted between the spar and the bulkhead and the nuts installed by finger. 

Note: It was found that all bolts needed to be loose to allow the AN4 bolts to be inserted into the bulkhead.

With the assembly bolts still loose the spacer was rotated until the previously marked high points and aligned with the side of the fuselage, at this point all bolts were nipped up ensuring the spacers remained in the correct alignment. 

Setting the Stab Incident

"Doctor will it ever be right?"

"Nurse, I don't know but lets keep 
adding tubes with that blue stuff !!

The fuselage was leveled on both the longitudinal axis and cross axis with the time proven method of water gauges chosen. A twelve [12] meter length of 3 mm tube was purchased and filled with a mixture of wet water [water with a drop of detergent] and blue food dye. 

There were four required in total - two [2] for the fuselage and two [2] for the stab. These were installed along the fuselage using the top rivet line of the fuselage and then across the fuselage using the same reference. 

Next the center line of the outer stab ribs were marked by splitting the verticals at both ends, a tube was installed and repeated across the stab spar.

With the fuselage leveled then the stab was leveled across the fuselage using a 10 kg bag of sand to apply the necessary torque.

FUSELAGE SET-OUT

The angle of incident for the stab is zero [0] degrees, using a water gauge located on the reference line on the outer rib the correct angle is established and then both mounting holes were marked using a transfer punch.

Note: This required the removal of the stab assembly to gain the access to drill the holes square.

Note: This task did require removal of the stab again.!

Home base

A short video tour of the Flying Legend Au home base at Rylstone Air-park. Our hanger is located at the left hand side at the start of the video.

Click on logo to run video.

Enjoy..!

Upgrade Fuselage - Part 1

As part of the ongoing development of the Tucano R and responding to builder request the factory has a development program to upgrade the Tucano R to an aerobatic rated air-frame. The recent testing of the wing verified that the structure will meet the requirement of +9 g at 650 kg and simply means the Tucano could with a skilled pilot loop at full gross weight...!

TUCANO WING TEST

At this builder's request the factory forwarded the first part's of the upgrade, larger gussets plates at six [6] key points. These are now incorporated into all new air-frames.

This blog is written to record the work undertaken and is standard in the new models as required.

Firewall Station 1

Studying the photos supplied it was decided to start by install the larger gussets at the firewall. After marking out the hole's for the rivets in the flange face the packer was trimmed to fit between the gusset and the inside face of the existing skin. The holes were then carefully match drilled through the fuselage skin and clecoed.

Factory Installation

The main problem fitting the top gusset was access to the top flange at the current state of assembly meant there is no access to rivet. A 0.040'' aluminium angle was fabricated and riveted to the firewall allowing the gusset to be attached at the bottom of the upper longeron and then to the angle.

Station 4
The existing brackets are folded 20 x 20 angle placing the rivet line about 10 mm from the skin. Removal of these angles was of no issue but the long stems dictated that they be drilled out. The stems were drilled out with a #80 drill and while this was accomplished with the drill available it was a bit large for the available room creating poor holes. 

Factory Installation

Why?

What when wrong, simple "get their itis" driven by a looming deadline making a decision it has to be finished TO-DAY, put simply "brain fade or classic stupidity". 

Its not going well, press on and only when the %#@ hits the fan that you stop, re-engage your brain but the damage is done. 

STOPPED - Regrouped, acknowledged my total stupidity.



The New Tools
The cause of the problem was a number of things but the selected tools did not help. What was needed was a drill that had the smallest offset from the body to the drill center-line. 

The factory uses a air right angle drill but for this number of holes its not an option. A Bosch IXO battery drill was selected as it would fit the specification with an offset adapter with the only issue begin the low rpm requiring two [2] steps off 3.5 / 4.0 mm.

New short hex drive drills were purchased to provide maximum room with minimum wobble [a problem with hex drills].

Note: The rivets selected by Flying Legend are a multi-grip and are designed to provide superior hole filling capacity.

The Repair
The holes were enlarged to 4 mm in two steps then M4 x 12 pop rivets inserted with clearance so tight the hand pop riveter had to be ground back as far as possible just to fit too expand the rivets. 

The hand of Hulk Hogen was needed to do the job so it was a two fist battle but they were all expanded using small steps and a sigh of relief exhaled with the last one..!

For your homework write 100 x

Spar straps, stop, think
Spar straps, stop, think
Spar straps, stop, think
Spar straps, stop .......

For the record
Just to prove I did the work as part of the approval process.

Gusset at Station 4

Station 4 interior [a few more rivets yet]

Gusset at Station 1 firewall

Station 1 interior

Bits and Pieces No 2

Overall this has been a most frustrating month with every small job taking hours of minor adjustments to finish - hoping to pick up pace after returning from AUS-Fly.

Cable Runs
In all the planing the cable's for the flap was missed, a new run was added using the base of the side panels. Cable runs were fixed using 10 mm nylon clamps and pop rivets with all visible clamps, rivets painted black to match the loom tube with all others left natural. 

Storage Pocket
The aircraft must be fitted with a pocket to store maintenance release, engine logs and the daily sign off. An elastic pocket was purchased from EBay was fitted to a folded cover fixed to the longeron with 1/8'' pop rivets. The pocket is secured using five [5] x M4 screws fitted into rivet nuts. The only point missed was the top longeron is not parallel and this resulted in a creeping rivet line - not a biggie but to be noted.

Pocket fitted

Rear Covers.
Fitting these was a never ending task of fitting and refitting with the end riveting just left to another day. When the day arrived they had to be removed to allow the rear brackets mounting holes to be slotted to prevent buckling and caused by the use of 0.012'' sheet in their construction. 

Baggage Compartment Wiring
The cables running through to the rear were routed via the C section located in the baggage compartment. Self adhesive pads are fixed onto the side with the loom tube secured with cable ties. To dress the C section a cover was will be folded from 0.012'' aluminium sheet and fixed with six [6]  2 mm pop rivets. A series of flared holes were added just for appearance and because I have the tools. 

Floor Covering
While the floor plates are painted they would take on a ratty appearance over time. While that is of no real concern in a replica there has to be a certain amount of pride taken. While roaming the isles of the local hardware store I stopped at the Croc Grip stand and noted the grey self adhesive vinyl and yellow/black safety strips. 

The grey is a shade darker and created a nice finish while the plain yellow / black marked the pilots entry point clearly. The yellow / black with the CAUTION logo was applied at the entry points.

The alignment at the front was affected by the rivets installed for the reinforcing and would require counter sunk rivets to allow greater flexibility at installation.

Pilots Floor Plate

Co-Pilots Floor Plate