Cotton Waiex 191 - N191YX

[Bryan Cotton]

Ryan,
I will check!

[Rynoth]

Bryan, since you have the pre-assembled spars, it probably wouldn't take you all that long to slap the angles/attach blocks onto the root tangs on the spars and do a test fitment through the spar tunnel, for peace of mind.

The thickest part of the spars are the attach blocks themselves, as long as you can insert/remove the spars and have a proper gap at the attach angles, you should be ok I'd think.

[Bryan Cotton]

Ryan,
It would be a hassle, just from a hangar organization point of view. I like the idea of clecoing in the aft tunnel. If those holes are shifted in the same direction, it says the floor is poorly located.

My first thought is always - what did I screw up? But it is hard for me to figure out how I mislocated the floor. The verticals in the tailcone locate the horizontals to the side skin. The horizontals locate the tailcone skin. The tailcone skin locates the cockpit floor. The side skins are located by the row of holes on the forward edges of the tailcone. Many CNC holes, little opportunity to screw up.

[Rynoth]

WIX-F11, detail F (bottom left corner of page) calls for the fuselage floor to be located even with the "forward outboard corner" the longerons (which is basically the same as the forward edge of the side skins). I remember needing to tug and clamp (effectively pulling the floor skin forward against the aft floor skin) in order to reach this alignment before drilling. How is your alignment there?

[Bryan Cotton]

Ryan,
It is back a little bit. That must have been some pull to get it to align!

[Bryan Cotton]

Sonex gave me two options:
1) get a new zee without the flange holes drilled
2) put rivets between the misaligned holes

I asked for option 3- hack off the flange and graft on a new one with flush rivets. They said go for it.

Tomorrow I will see if I can get them drilled together, and to the floor as well.

[Bryan Cotton]

My first replacement flange I screwed up in the brake. No edge distance. The second one I just screwed up by having it poorly located, trying to do it solo. Plus my notches were not good. We make it nice because we make it thrice. I did get the tunnel drilled to the engine mount angles though. For the bolt holes I just marked them with a drill and will drill through using a drill cup bushing.

So, it was not all scrap.

[Bryan Cotton]

Here is my new flange. This is the third one. Spent a lot of time with the fluting pliers making it straight. Came out good.


The aft spar tunnel clecoed to the floor and lays nicely on the aft mount angle. However, it seems like the edge distance on the 1/8" piece where it clecoes to the top of the tunnel is minimal. From underneath you see a lot if the angle and you can see the gap in the picture. Is this typical?

[tonyr]

Hi Bryan

Yes the gap is normal!

I searched for a photo but this is all I have.. you can see the gap on the LH side adjacent to seat cushion. There is an angle on the fuse skin to tunnel that partially covers it. The blue tape was to stop swarf during construction.

Trust me.. you wont even think of it when you're flying

[Bryan Cotton]

Thanks Tony! I looked at Ryan's, Scott's, and Bob Meyer's pics and their tunnels looked similar.
Back to work for me!