Flight Controls, Part 1

The next major task of the project's Finish kit, is Section 32, the flight controls.  The first order of business was to assemble the flaperon mixer.  The first step in that process required the installation of a couple of bearings, each attached with 6 blind rivets around the circumference.

Cleco'd in place and rivets get fired into the top half of the mixer.  A similar process is used on the lower half of the mixer.

Below is a picture of the two halves of the flaperon mixer with their bearings riveted into place.  This unit will be installed into the fuselage later with four pushrods and the bearing bolt.

Two of the previously referenced pushrods travel from the mixer to the flaperon torque tubes and have end fittings which must be riveted into the raw tubular stock provided.  Below are several shots of the drill press and V-block used to insure a square and even assembly of the rod ends.

Below, the rod end is temporarily held in place with clecos.

And, the riveted rod ends at the terminus of the pushrods.

And finally, the bearings are attached and adjusted to length.  Next, comes the disassembly and priming prior to assembly into the control system.

Another component of the flight control system are the control stick pushrods made of 5/16 inch diameter aluminum tubing, less than 10 inches in length.  Unfortunately, I impulsively built them during some down time about 6 weeks ago (May 30, 2013 according to my notes in the builder's manual) without any intervening construction pictures.  There were internal threads that were tapped into the tubes to accept the threaded rod end bearings.  Needless to say, the final pictures are shown below....and they will also be assembled into the control system later, after priming.