Chapter 13 – Peel ply jungle

I started out today by adding micro into the routed beds I made for the phenolic rudder pedal bases.

Installing pedal base with micro

I then spread a fine coat of epoxy on the bottom side of the pedal base and mounted it in the floor pan.  I also added a micro fillet in the corners around the perimeter of the floor pan.

Pedal base micro'd in place

The last step I performed when I was laying up the floorpans was to add a 3.5″ wide and 2.5″ high 2-ply BID layup between the aft bottom of the F22 center post and the fuselage floor.

F22-to-fuselage floor 2-ply BID

Here’s a shot of the glassed and peel plied floor pan.

Floor pan glass & peel plied

To ensure that each embedded rudder pedal base was perfectly level, I taped up a couple pieces of scrap wood with packing tape and then weighed them down over the rudder pedal bases.

Pedal base weighted for level surfacePedal base weighted for level surface

Here’s a shot of the weighed down rudder pedal bases.

Pedal bases weighted for level surface

While the floor pan layups cured I started back to work on the nose gear electrical system to finalize the conversion of the connectors to AMP CPCs.  I finalized converting the switch side (vs motor side) main connector P1 while concurrently cleaning up the wiring by zip tying the wiring.  I also cut all the terminated wires to the same length.

Nose gear connectors upgraded

Here’s a shot of the P1 connector (motor) and P2 connector (AEX) connected together.

P1 & P2 connectors connected

After a good 3-4 hours of cure time under a heat lamp, I pulled the weight off the rudder pedal base, razor trimmed the overhanging side glass and pulled the peel ply.  I also spent a good amount of time cleaning up all the peel ply goobers as well.

Glassed left side floor pan

I set the heat lamp up on the other side and ended working another 3-4 hours on the nose gear electrical connectors before cleaning the right side.  I still have to clean up all the peel ply boogers, but I’m calling it a night.

Glassed right side floor pan

Tomorrow I’ll test out the nose gear actuator with the new connectors.  I’ll also start working to finish the nose side walls.  And if all goes well, I may even get the gear strut connected to the actuator motor inside the gear box.

 

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