Friday, March 30, 2012

Hanging rudder pedals installed.

I was looking over my recent build photos and I realized I had not made an entry about installing my rudder pedals.

Most people building CX4's these days have switched to the floor mounted rudder pedals, but I had purchased the original hanging ones from Dave and I kind of liked the feel of this version, so I stuck with them.

I made some modifications to the plans that I think improve the installation (Of course! They're my ideas.). I didn't think the sleeves that are to be riveted in place on either side of each pedal to hold them in place allowed much flexibility for an error (and we know I'm prone to making such errors) or any adjustment that might need to be made. So, I purchased 4 countersink set stops from McMaster to hold the pedals in place. They weren't cheap at $5.00 each, but neither would be a mis-drilled rivet hole.

Click on image to enlarge

You can see these set stops in the photo above on either side of the upper swing tube of the rudder pedal. These step stops have two set screws. I found I had to sand the inside of the set stops to get them to fit over the steel tube. I'm glad I purchased them as there was quite a bit of fiddling with the pedal to get it in just the correct location to swing past the side of the fuel tank.



In the photo above you can see the angle I used for a mounting bracket for the side to side steel tube for which the pedals use to swing from. The plans call for you to use a conduit hanger, but the hole in this angle captures the steel tube nicely. I actually had to cut another steel tube to a more appropriate length than the one Dave sent with the pedals. The original length was too short.


I rounded off the outside corner of this angle so that it fit snugly under the upper longeron. I secured the angle with two AN3 bolts. One of the bolts is shared with the angle that lies across the longerons to hold the fuel tank in place.  You can see it in the photo above.

I'm generally pleased with the installation.

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