rueker.comSarah's Sling TSi Build Log - Documenting the journey of building a Sling TSi aircraft in my garage.

Sarah’s Sling TSi Build Log Documenting the journey of building a Sling TSi aircraft in my garage. Menu Home About Contact me Resources How to get started Tools Avionics & Electrical Drilling, Countersinking & Rivet Sizing Other builders & useful links LED METAR Map Adding a mini display to show METAR information to the METAR map Making a heater valve bracket Hours: 1.5 Leave a reply Time to turn my cardboard prototype into a permanent bracket for the heater valve. Since this bracket will sit freely, I decided to use 0.05in thick aluminum to give it some strength. Just like the standard bracket that would usually hold the bowden cable, I designed the bracket to mount into the heater valve unit. So I added the size of the screw mount portion of the original bracket to my cardboard bracket part. With the outline made, I got out the aviation snips and started cutting out the bracket. Next step, releasing some tension. To make the bend, I mounted the bracket along the bend line in my bench vise. And then gave it some gentle (read strong) taps with the rubber mallet to form the bend. And here it is, a nicely formed 90 degree bend. Next I deburred all the edges and rounded out the corners. And then I match-drilled the holes to mount the bracket to the heater valve using the original bracket. Finally, time to mount the servo to the new bracket. Quick test fitting with a clamp to get the travel distance right. And then I drilled and mounted it to the bracket. And here it is in action: This entry was posted in Cabin Air , Fuselage and tagged Fuselage , fabricating , cabin air , modifications , brackets on 2021-03-16 by Sarah Rueker . More Cabin air servo work Hours: 2.5 3 Replies With my cabin air servo mount worked out for the right side , time to translate it to the left. I started with my cardboard pattern to match everything up for the left side. Everything looked good, so I started cutting out the bracket out of 0.032in aluminum stock. I recently ran across this very helpful video on how to properly use aviation snips. This made it a lot easier to cut things like the bracket. Cutting the bracket using some of the tips from the video to cut a sacrificial strip of metal to keep everything straight. Once I completed cutting it, I removed the protective plastic and rounded the corner and edges. Then time for the final test fit in the airplane before match drilling the holes. All worked well, here’s the completed test fit in action: Cabin Heater fluid valve The third and final modification I’m making in the cabin air department is the valve that controls the heater fluid that runs through the heater. The standard installation controls this valve using a Bowden cable connected to a plastic switch to be mounted in the cabin. So on to some prototyping to figure out a bracket to operate the valve using the servo instead. Looks viable, here’s the cardboard prototype in action: This entry was posted in Cabin Air , Fuselage and tagged Fuselage , fabricating , servo , cabin air on 2021-03-13 by Sarah Rueker . Fabricating the air vent servo mount Hours: 1 1 Reply As I mentioned a while back, I am going to use a servo to control the butterfly valve that controls the flow of outside air for the cabin instead of the manual school bus handlebar” that the kit is designed with. With the assembly of the Rudder pedals that sit right below it done, I now moved on to actually putting this together. I temporarily placed the dash in place to make sure there won’t be any interference with the bracket I designed for the servo mount. All looked good, so I moved on to fabricating the bracket I designed earlier out of cardboard. I decided to use some 0.032in thick aluminum to give the mount some stability and rigidity. After that I match drilled the hole for the servo mount through the template, marking the hole using a center punch. Then I mounted the bracket in the plane using some clamping clecos in order to match drill the holes from the air vent. With both holes drilled I then clecoed the air vent in and mounted the servo for final testing. I’ll shorten the screw of the servo mount as it’s a bit longer than it needs to be as can be seen above so it won’t interfere with the parachute cable. Here’s a video of it in action: Now I just need to replicate it for the left side and then I need to install it permanently. This entry was posted in Cabin Air , Fuselage and tagged Fuselage , fabricating , servo , cabin air on 2021-03-09 by Sarah Rueker . Assembling the Rudder Pedals Hours: 3 Leave a reply So with me moving on working in the Fuselage I did some rearranging of my garage workshop. I moved the wings back into the corner. I also turned the Fuselage around to have easier access to the flight deck. (The latest FAA’s handbooks says that even a small Cessna 150 is now a flight deck and not a cockpit ?). To get around easier, I also moved one of the work tables up and formed a T-shape. I am going with the standard Sling configuration of T-bar rudder pedals and the central brake instead of differential braking. This makes the installation and setup simpler without the hydraulics in the pedals. When I did my test flight of the TSi it was easy to steer it without differential braking. I inventoried all the parts for the rudder pedals the other day. It took a bit to find the pedal hardware bag. But luckily Juliana found it buried in my mountain of hardware bags on the table in the background. I noticed that the right side pedal bar had cleaned up attach points, but the left side was missing it. So I had a bit of shaving it off to do. It was pretty easy using a utility knive and then a bit of sand paper to finish it off. With that bit cleared up, all I had to do was slowly build it all up. I had to do a lot of moving left and right of the Fuselage to be able to reach down to put everything in. With the bottom brackets installed I started putting it all together. With the brackets in place, I then temporarily put together the stops with the AN bolts. That way I don’t have to go looking for the hardware later when I attach the rudder cables to the pedals. The next step was to rivet the brackets in place. This was trickier than I thought due to the tight space. In retrospect I should have temporarily put the brackets together before putting them in, which would have made reaming the holes a lot easier since I couldn’t fit my drill in properly, so I had to turn the reamer bit with my hand for a bit. And finally, attaching the pedals to the bars. There are 3 possible depths and I’m not sure yet which will be the best fit. For now I put them on loosely until I have fit the seats and can do a test sit. This entry was posted in Flight controls , Fuselage and tagged Fuselage , riveting , Rudder , rudder pedals , flight controls on 2021-03-07 by Sarah Rueker . Completing the rear seat Hours: 4 Leave a reply After a bit of a hiatus, back to building. With the help of my other half, we completed the bottom part of the rear seats and put it all together to finish it. This was truly one of those tasks where 4 hands can finish it all in half the time. With everything clecoed together and fitted, time for some rivets. Once that was all riveted together, we combined the bottom and top bench with the hinge. One piece of note here as the instructions don’t quite call out what orientation the hinge should be put in place. I did a lot of test fitting to get the ideal hinge-fit for this. Based on my testing, here’s what I did: I riveted the top bench from the back as seen in the above picture. And the bottom bench from the front to back, in order for the bench to be able to fold forward completely without interference like this: And here’s the happy completed picture: This entry was posted in Seats , Fuselage and tagged Fuselage , riveting , alignment , Seats , helper , fitting on 2021-03-02 by Sarah Rueker . Assembling the rear seat Hours: 2 Leave a reply With the front seats almost complete apart from the...