2ND QTR 2006           •   •   • 
DATE HRS TTD ACTION IMAGES
04/18/06 3.2 883.9 Welded in the mounting tabs for the passenger headrest panel onto the crossmember. Cut out areas in the panel for the shoulder harnesses to exit their attachment to the crossmember tube. Since my panel is a little bit forward compared to a standard panel, I had to make the cutouts taller. The amount of cutout was determined by sitting in the front seat and testing the shoulder harness fit. Tabs jigged Tab welded
Testing shoulder harness fit with panel cutouts Panel cutouts
05/07/06 3.5 887.4 Installed MS21049-L08 countersink nutplates in both panels so I can use 8-32 countersink screws to hold the top cover down. I used a set of springback dimple dies from Avery Tools to dimple the panels and cover. Note that standard non-countersink screws and rivets are used to hold the lift strut attachment. Panel dimpled and ready for nutplate Nutplates installed Countersink screw installed
06/01/06 0.8 888.2 Installed the front windshield, front instrument panel and top sheetmetal so I could determine where the sway wires would be going behind the front instrument panel. Obviously I cannot put instruments where they will hit the wires behind, so the big front panel gets kind of limited as to where to put things. I ran some string from the fuselage fittings out the center of the slots cut in the top cover and made some marks on the back of the instrument panel. Finding sway wire paths behind front panel
06/27/06 2.5 890.7 Did some CAD work on the layout of the front instrument panel, allowing a 1/2" of "no fly" zone on either side of the sway wire paths. I then plotted out the instrument panel layout and taped it to the panel to see how it looks. The compass is set higher than the arc of the others so I can see it from the back seat if nobody is up there to read it for me. I tried to keep the layout as close to the rear instrument panel as possible for consistency. Click here to see my panel layout plan. Drawing sway wire paths on panel Panel layout done in paper
06/28/06 1.0 891.7 Over at Ken's to punch holes. Since the Whitney punch press requires us to have the panel flat on the table, working from the back of the panel, I drilled small 3/32 holes through the centers of the instrument locations so we could locate the punch each time. The punch has a small centerpoint that can be set into the hole to line it up before punching the hole. I'm waiting for my front panel vents to arrive so I'll punch those holes later. We used some small square punches to do the EIS holes.
06/30/06 3.3 895.0 Fit instruments to the front panel. First I used the instrument jig and drilled the needed holes for each instrument, then I used a file to make the instrument hole slightly bigger. When I punched the holes, they were exactly 2.25 and 3.125, and the holes need to be bigger to allow for paint on the panel and easy installation. I then used the old EIS faceplate I had laying around to use for a template to fit the EIS. Note that the pictures show an Xcom comm in the front panel, but I only used it as a test, I will be putting an Xcom remote tuning head there instead. Drilling holes for instruments Instrument hole drill jig
Instruments test fit Backside view of panel
QTR TOTAL 14.3  
 2ND QTR 2006           •   •   •