Tonight, the plan is to start working on the NACA vents and some fairings for the rudder cables. The plans for the rudder cables are not part of the kit, the plans for them originated are from Sam Buchanan's RV Journal. Also, Dan Checkoway has done it, and it's documented well on both websites.
Also, we decided to make something of a departure from the plans with the NACA vents by putting a few pop rivets in there. Because we'll be using rivets, we'll make an aluminum backing plate so the rivets don't chew through the plastic. Both the rudder cable fairings and the backing plates for the vents are from 0.020 inch aluminum.
Also I owe Scott Millhouse (RV-9A) thanks for this, as he provided templates for the NACA vents, advice, and some scrap aluminum.
They sort of both fit. |
First attempt at correctly locating the rivet holes. (Less than complete success, here, we'll come up with something better tomorrow.) |
Using backlighting to make sure the vent is centered. |
Shape for the rudder cable fairings. Measurements are visible, from top to bottom is 4 inches. |
Completed backing plates. |
Coming up with a nice place to put the rivets is more of a pain in the rear than I thought it was going to be . . . we don't have anything we're happy with yet, but I'm sure we'll come up with a nice way of doing it tomorrow. The holes that we drew on the fuselage today just didn't look right when we stepped back and looked at them. Probably would have worked but not looked very nice.
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