Category Archives: Sonex 1485 - Page 3
Skinning right wing
Right wing skins
Attached top and bottom skins to the wing. I did this with the wing stood vertically on the saw horses (supported by the main spar). I checked to make sure there was no twist and that the wing was square multiple times while drilling and clecoing. Eliminating twist seemed to be trickiest. My saw horses weren’t perfectly aligned with each other so I needed to add shims under the spar to remove twist caused by the saw horses. Eventually, I was able to make multiple measurements with a level on the rear spar and convince myself there was no measurable twist down the length of the wing.
The “squareness” of the wing got locked in pretty quickly by the clecoes. The twist didn’t get locked in until I finally clecoed the skin to the main spar, but I’m extremely happy with how it turned out and don’t anticipate any problems with the next wing.
Looking down the lightening holes to convince myself the wing is square.
Clecoed the top side of the forward skin to the ribs and used a ratchet strap to pull the leading edge around the bottom side until I could cleco it to the spar. This wasn’t nearly as difficult as I expected it to be.
Attaching tail to fuselage
When attaching the horizontal stabilizer, it is important to be sure the bolt holes will go through the angle beneath the longerons with enough room for the nuts to clear the leg. I checked the measurement and though I had more clearance then I ended up with–I may have got lucky. I did have to remove one rivet and install it from the other direction to prevent interfering with the nut.
I had to cut probably about 1/16″ or so off the stabilizer skins to get them to fit around the turtle-deck (as directed by the plans).
The vertical tail was a tight fit. I had to trim some of the rear turtledeck to allow for clearance of the spar attachment when installing it (the notch called for in the plans would work if you could magically teleport the tail into position).
It seems my hardware kit was missing two bolts for the horizontal stabilizer and all the nut plates for the vertical tail.
Brake system parts
These parts are for the brake cables. The piece on the left attaches to the brake handle on one end and a pulley on the other to pull the brake cable. It is in the shot for convenience. The part bolted to the engine mount gives the cables a solid place to go through the firewall before twisting off towards each brake.
I was afraid I’d need to either get an extremely small right angle drill or remove the engine mount from the plane to get the cable guide drilled into position. Fortunately, I was able to mark the hole with my very flexible 12″ pilot drill bit on the top of the mount. Then I drilled up from the bottom through the nut-access-hole in the mount.
Battery box
Were I to build this again, I’d probably make it about 1/8″ smaller in all dimensions. I was able to push the sides inward when mounting on the firewall (as suggested in the plans) for a snug fit. The “lid” pushes the battery snugly against the firewall. There is a pretty big gap on the front side of the battery, but the battery doesn’t seem like it will be going anywhere–even at 6 G’s. Maybe this will help with cooling?
A couple of rivets were tricky to get to from the engine side of the firewall so I installed them from the cockpit side.
Upholstery planning
- Buy from Sonex
- Available in black or gray 1000d Tex-Nylon (Cordura)
- Make my own
- Cordura is available from http://www.rockywoods.com/Fabrics-Kits/1000D-Cordura-Nylon/1000-Denier-Coated-Cordura-Nylon-Fabric
- Confor Foam 2″x16″x18″ ~$45 from http://www.aircraft-spruce.com/catalog/cmpages/temperfoam.php
- Examples: