June 2, 2020
Today was spent jumping all around the fuselage and started with finding all the parts to put the control stick together. It took a while to get the bushing in the mount without it binding. I think one tube may have warped a little with the welding, so I took a Dremel and polished up the inside of the mount, and took the bushing to the Scotch Brite wheel to polish it up. It binds once in a blue moon now, but I think I’m 95% there. I’ll keep working on it if it gives me any problems during the final rigging.
Next up I made and installed the 6 pieces of aluminum that go across the top of the seat back cross bar. This aluminum provides the backing for the top seat back adjustments if you decide to install them.
The QB kit comes with the 705 bracket for tip-up canopies pre-installed. Since we’re installing a slider canopy, I drilled out their handiwork.
The big job of the day was in the tail after Kacy knocked off work. The plans instructed us to now install the tailwheel spring mount between the two aft-most bulkheads. Drilling out the pop-rivets that held in the aft bulkhead gave us room to work. In the plans, there’s a full-size template of the hole required for the tailwheel. We cut out the template and clecoed in in place. It was an ab workout under the plane with the cut-off wheel, but it turned out better than I expected. A little time with the Dremel and it was perfect.
Template 
Cutting 
Rough cut
Now that we know the tailwheel spring mount fits, I’m going to take it to be powder-coated before final install. It’s a titanium piece but I want it to look good, especially since part of it is permanently exposed. Once we bolt the aft-bulkhead back in place this mount won’t be coming out again for painting, so it needs to be done now.
-Paul
(Total Build Time: 246.5 hrs)