Section 33 Rudder & Brake System

RV14 Build March 18, 19, 29, 31, & April 10

Section 33 Rudder & Brake System

Very Excite for this post! I had been trying hard to find someone in Chicago or anywhere who would anodize my rudder pedals. Unfortunately, no one will do small one off work like this....Until one of my best friends said that his father in law ran a metal finishing company!!!! Thank you Bill and thank you Joel!

Here are the pedals back from Joel. I spent time prepping the pedals by sanding with red scotch-brite to get a uniformed appearance, but the brackets looks fine so I left them alone. This affected how well the metal took the color as you can see a slight difference. After looking at it I really like the darker more faded look of the pedals.

Whole bunch of new things in the mail today.

I only had the pedals and bracket that would easily been seen anodized, so I wasn't sure what color to make the substructure parts. Red or black. After spraying test pieces I settled on the black.

 Cutting spacers.

 Riveting on the brackets and sub structure.

Trying to keep the orientation correct proved to be challenging for my brain this day.

Drilled out and re-riveted.

Pedals are together.

Installing on the frame. Getting the orientation here correct was a little challenging too. Just took some time, to understand how the plans have them layed out.

Installing the fluid fittings.

Close up of the pedal with brake actuator. I taped off the fluid fitting to keep them clean until the install.

Finished sub assembly. I wouldn't figure this out until later during the install, but now knowing looking at the pedals the left is tilted back and the right tilted forward. Turns out the front bar with the right pedal in the picture needs to be the rear.

Installing into the airplane. Again you can see how the pedals are tilted unevenly. This is about when I figured it out and flipped them.

Making brake lines. First time doing this! The plans have you use boiling water to heat the ends to aid in assembly, I carefully used a heat gun.

After flipping the bars, Liz and I started to work on the fluid lines.

Didn't get a good photo of it, but the fittings that go into the firewall bracket have a sleeve build into them. I didn't know this and had to remove the small brass inert after installing it, pain in the ass, to move the fitting on the tube to the correct location.

Brake lines installed, and pedals looking much better in there proper location. Just need to pull the rudder cables through and hook everything up.

Little brass fitting that goes into the tube, Liz lost in, but then she completely redeemed herself and found it!

After I installed the pedals I went to attach the rudder cable and this is when I found out I put it in backwards!

To flip the cable around I tied a rope to the end and pulled the cable through so the line would be through all the grommets to pull the cable back through the correct way.

I dont have any more of the AACQ4-4 rivets or the FN416P washers, so I have to order hardware.

The hardware in the front mount it different? Interesting.

I re-primed the attach brackets

The hardware came in and I reinstalled the plastic wire guides.

Installing the wires to the pedals. In hindsight I should have waited on the cotter pin until I have the ridder on and seats in to adjust the pedals.

I haven't put on the front instrument panel and the access to move around the cabin is much better, glad I have waited on this.

Pedals are connected to the cables!

Rudder & Brake System 15.0 Man Hours