Part 1: The Rudder Pedals
I laid out the cuts I'd need to make, the holes I'd need to drill, and gathered my hardware.
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Then I pinned two blocks together using a
drill bit, and updrilled them to 3/16" together
for perfect alignment, once drilled I put
the bolt through and tightened it.
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I drilled them to 1/8" and cut them on the bandsaw
I cleaned up the edges on the sanding wheel, and we were off to the races!
I located the center holes, these were where the steel tube of the rudder pedals would come through.
I used a 1" spade bit to boar through the phenolic, and yes, this freed up about 3.5 square inches of COMPRESSED phenolic, and sent it all over the work bench.
Now that the holes were drilled, I used the Dremel, with a sanding tip, to ream them so that they fit with minimal friction. Taking a bit of extra time on this was well worth it since it made my rudder pedals silky smooth, like every other control will be in my plane.
The most iconic control is, of course, the stick. In the standard Sonex, there is one control stick, in-between the two seats. There is a dual stick mod, that I opted for.
I had to get this just right so that my controls were not lopsided.
I lined it up, clamped it down, and drilled it through.
I pushed the bolt through, tightened it all up, and it was good to go, now I had to put the stick assembly in the control triangle (big metal trapezoid)
And of course, I had my dog Zoe helping me build!
With both sticks in, I needed to attach the linking rod. I lined up both sticks perfectly vertical and perpendicular to the control triangle.
I aligned the linking rod and drilled.
Hard to hold back a grin when I finish any piece, but the control sticks were a different story, it was impossible not to smile and pretend I was flying.
Part 3: The Trim and Flaps
The flap drive is a big long steel tube that runs just in front of the spar tunnel and pokes out each side into where the wings will go. it too use phenolic blocks to ride in a extremely low friction bushing.
It's bolted up the flap handle, which sits in 1 of 3 positions in the flap detent bar, no flaps, half flaps, full flaps. (the handle, and detent bar will get powder coated black)
The flap detent bar, doubles as a mount for the trim lever, this will control the trim tab way back in the elevator via a this metal pushrod, basically like a model airplane. This is one of the few controls that I do want stiff so it doesn't flop.
Thanks to everyone who follows my progress, y'all are always encouraging, supportive, and helpful!