Levelling
I am happy to have a lot of different levelling tools (“Wasserwaagen”). These are my favourites.
Stabilizer Strut
Horizontally the stabilizer has to be level. As you can see, we managed to set the right length of the strut.
Setting the right Angle of Incident
The angle of the horizontal stabilizer has to be 1 degree down. As you can see, we managed this. The electronic level makes it very convenient to measure the …
Mixer Arm Done
After some sanding, here is the final mixer arm, ready for installation.
Fabricating Mixer Arm
The mixer arm has to be fabricated out of a aluminum bar. This is definitely the point where you need a good band saw. Mine is not the best. …
Sanding Control Column
To minimize friction at the control column, I removed the black color. I think pure metal will have less friction in the lexan base than the black coating.
Enlarging Opening in Bearing Base
The delrin blocks in the bearing base were to tight. I had to sand them to allow a good fit of the control column. I used a tube of …
Fan Shirt
This looks like a real fan shirt. In fact it was just by coincidence that Martin bought this shirt. I hope it still fits when he will fly the …
Landing gear finished and installed
Today we finished the landing gear! The final covering will be done later, when painting.
Brake
This picture shows the brakes installed. My kit came with brakes from Matco.
Intermediate Bungees
I used this rope as intermediate bungees. Will be replace before the first start by real bungees.
First own steps
An impressive achievement today: The Rebel is standing on his own legs. Landing gear is installed.
Tire Mounted
Today we did the (hopefully) final mounting of the landing gear. It looks great. Tomorrow the next tire and then the Rebel is ready for the first excurstion outside …
Inspection holes in fuselage bottom
After some consideration, I decided to put inspection holes into the fuselage bottom. Thus the AN5 bolts in the carrythroughs may be accessed from outside. Just in case I …
Tire on rim
Today I mounted the tires on the rims. This was one of the sometimes occuring tasks that take much longer than expected. The Dico tire of my kit did …
Right Gear
With the experience from the left side, the right gear was a straightforward task. Drilling the axle with the stainless steel drills was easy this time.
Safety Cable
This shows the safety cable for the landing gear, put inside the tubes. The first time I made a nicopress connection. It worked ok with the cheap swaging tool …
Drilling Gauge
This simple (self made) gauge helps when drilling on the fuselage. It keeps the drill in the right direction, 90 degrees to the surface.
Tailwheel done
All parts for the tailwheel installation are done. One final thing is to tighten all bolts. The bolts where missing. I need to order the bolts and have to …
Tailwheel Delrin Spacer
This is a spacer (from Delrin) to fix the tailwheel spring. Since I added a doubler (FUS-30) at the tailwheel position, the AN6 bolt is short and a …
Swivel Tail wheel
The tail wheel delivered with my kit is permanently connected, there is no handle to disconnect it from rudder during moving the fuselage. To overcome this I plan to …
Tail wheel Fibreglass spring
My kit 433R is equipped with a fibreglass spring. Some of the builders love this, some do not recommend it. I decided to give it a try and installed …
Gear Installation
First part of landing gear installed. Thats all I can do for now. I have to wait for some parts to be delivered from Aircraft Spruce. It’s hard to …
Hanging Free
To prepare installing the landing gear, I removed the construction table and fixed the fuselage on the ceiling of the garage. Looks cool. Probably the first “flying feeling” for …
Hard Stuff
This was hard work: Drilling two holes in the axle (in the alu block) needed approximately 10 drills. Being used to aluminum this is a different experience. In the …
Most important tools
This picture shows the most important tools at all. – A super fine pencil to mark the parts before drilling or cutting. I probably used 10 of …
Grinding Wheel
This grinding wheel from 3M is cool for aluminum. It’s not cheap, but will probably last for the whole plane. I wouldn’t know what to do without it.
Electronic Level
This electronic level is also a tool, I can recommend. The digital display is easy to read. A small loudspeaker makes aligning parts an easy one man task, …
Rivet Tool
This is the rivet tool I used. Again no need for a compressor. Just put it on the electrical drill and easily pull the rivets. Good tool made by …