Rudder cables, brake lines, rear keel (whale tail) bonding | 9.13.2020

Rudder cables were run through the nylaflow tubing out the back of the firewall, and the clamps were affixed on the rudder end. I haven't connected them to the rudder pedals yet; figured it would be better to do that during final fit-up of the rudders. No pictures of this, whoops.

I also installed brake lines (nylaflow) through the straws previously installed in the main gear. These will get joined with unions to the brake lines that have yet to be installed down the co-pilot's duct.

Brake line hanging to the right. Will be attached later.

The biggest portion of the night was spent installing the rear keel (also called the whale tail). Since I had gone through the manual completely and the controls were fully installed, I felt comfortable permanently bonding the rear keel into the plane.

Given that this is irreversible, I spent a great deal of time prepping the surfaces for bonding and ensuring that everything was going in straight. Of note, our rear keel had set in the back of the plane (not attached really), slightly out of alignment for probably 10+ years, so it was warped and didn't want to sit straight. The manual specifies not using rivets for this install, choosing to use clecos to hold the keel in place during adhesive cure. I tested this ahead of time and had clecos pop out because the keel was exerting a large amount of warping force. Not wanting to risk that happening in the middle of the cure, I opted to rivet the rear keel in place for cure. The rivets are non-structural, and simply held the rear keel in place while it cured.

Aeropoxy two part adhesive was mixed with Cabosil and Flox to a sticky mayonnaise consistency. This was then applied to the rear keel and floor. To be honest, I was quite excessive on the application of adhesive and it shows. But hey, this was my first time doing this, and I only had one shot. Figured it was easier to clean up excess adhesive than cut the keel out, buy a new one, and re-try. The keel was pressed into place and riveted to hold, then I cleaned the adhesive up off the floor where I could. No pictures of the inside, but I did manage to get a good bead of adhesive to squeeze through on the inside without too much excess ending up in there.