Today I moved on to the left aileron and made multiple cuts along the bottom seam of the aileron bag to et the aileron to fit. As was expected, the rudder cable conduit was in the way again. So I started the surgical extraction. If the conduit. Unfortunately almost right away I damaged the conduit. It is somewhat visible in this photo, where he discoloration is.
So I kept going and cleared out the glass, micro, and foam that was in conflict. Then I had to repair the tube. Seemed that the best way was to splice it. Luckily I have the proper tuning here to do that as I had to do it once before. So I cut a chunk of the damaged tubing out.
Then I cut a chunk of the new tube to about 1/8″ longer than the original. The extra length allows me to very easily move the routing of the conduit as it naturally want to move further into the wing with the extra length. This new piece of conduit is inserted into a piece of tube that has the ID the same as the OD of the conduit and that is 2 inches longer than the splice. This extra is slid over the two ends of the existing conduit, and we have a splice.
All that remained was to micro and layup some glass. It is curing right now. Tomorrow we will trim and get the ailerons mounted so we can proceed with the rigging.
I also got the “service bulletin” done on the Strong Pitch Trim. If you haven’t seen it yet, James Redmon has a good description of the problem and solution on his website, berkut13.com. It basically is adding 2 safety chains to the assembly as well as a witness mark so you can see if the motor slips in the mount. The safety chains prevent any failure from jamming the pitch system.
I need to finish the reinstallation, but the safety measures are now done. I want to finish mounting the pitch trim position sensor first though.
Lastly, Kevin and I bonded in a mount for the pilot interphone jacks. It is basically just a piece of phenolic that is bonded to the fuselage side. Then we cut away the matching area on the console. Before doing this, I verified that it wouldn’t be in the way of my arms when they are resting in their natural location in flight.
I ought to be able to get that cleaned up and the jacks final mounted tomorrow.
the Garaggio 