I switched gears today to get some of the parts off the shelf. I installed the front elevator pushrod that goes from the control sticks to the bellcrank in the tailcone. There is a larger pushrod that will then go from the bellcrank back to the elevators.
As simple as the picture of the control stick assembly makes it look, it was a good 4 hours of work. Part of the reason was that I discovered that when I made the seat rib cutouts last year, I didn't see a callout on the drawings that showed the two inboard ribs (not the center ribs, but the ones on either side) also needed to have the main hole enlarged to make room for the horizontal control tube. I enlarged the two middle ribs, as well as did the cutout of the top flange to allow the control tub to slide in place, but I just didn't see the callout to enlarge the other two ribs. I took the dremel to them - awkward and time consuming, but worked out just fine.
I put the main horizontal control column in place first and bolted it to the beefy attach brackets that are bolted to the spar. Easy to say, much harder to do. Holding multiple washers in place in between moving parts and bearings is not easy! I tried a trick of using dental floss to string parts and washers in order, which made it a little easier to keep the washers from falling out of place while I fumbled with bolts. I attached the lower pushrod that connects the aileron pushrods, and also put the copilot stick attach point in place. I'll leave the pilot side out for a while. Whereas the copilot side allows the stick to be removed and out of the way, the pilot side stick is one single unit. I don't want it in the way for now.
The last thing to do was to install the center rib filler pieces that span the cutouts.
