May 28, 2020
Today I started the first piece of the flight control system by making the aileron pushrods. These will be the method of driving the ailerons and are critical to be done right.
Unfortunately, the plans are wrong and by following them I cut the tubes that run from the fuselage to the bell crank too short. When I assembled them onto the wing I was only able to get one thread of the rod end into the fittings and that’s nowhere near sufficient.
I called up Van’s, and even though I got my kit 2 weeks ago, their drawing had different dimensions on it than my drawing did. We had the same revision of the drawing, so that makes zero sense and is a sign of terrible configuration control. Make the big tubes about 3/4″ longer than the plans call for. My plan going forward will be to drill holes in my work benches the total distance apart, bolt the rod ends to the table top, and then line up all the parts and mark the tubes for the correct length.
Its really annoying having to double-check every single step of the plans with other builders blogs before you can get anything accomplished on the plane but that’s our standard plan going forward. To top it all off, Van’s is backordered on the 12′ of replacement tube, so I have no idea when I’ll be able to remake these.
The shorter tubes from the bell crank to the aileron are correct so I’ll work on installing those tomorrow.
-Paul
(Total Build Time: 221.0 hrs)