Cockpit rails and skins

Like many folks, my cockpit rails wont flush up to the skins at the center section bulkheads, even after clamping and squeezing it all together.

The rails actually line up with the vertex of the longeron in that specific spot, however, the overlapping skins is not very aesthetically pleasing. The rail flushes the skins elsewhere though.

Is it an issue to scarf the skins in this area where the forward skin overlaps the mid skin at the cockpit rail? I can't see why not, but nothing is mentioned in the plans.

Everything else lines up great!

Onto the Back support plate...lets see how my MED works out on it after all of the issues others have had. Thank goodness for others build logs!

hmm, I did not scarf mine, I did notice what I think you are talking about, I did stick out a very little. I did not worry about it. I just made sure that my rails were straight and parallel for the canopy. I was a little concerned but then when the canopy is closed???? I don't see that. I am fixing to paint this fuse tommorrow, so we will see how that comes out.

bird

Cockpit Rails

I scarfed that joint in the side skins. I think I persuaded the rail into alignment but can't remember for certain. Mine is currently apart waiting on the painter to get the parts primed. My painter is really slow

Thanks

Thanks folks, scarfing I will do.

Cheers,

Don

I hope this is close enough.......

Thanks very much for all of y'all that post and for this forum! I searched for "cockpit rail" issues and found this thread. It help a bunch.

My addition:
I jumped ahead in the instructions and ratcheted around the fuse at the gear legs and that along with clamps at the rails, finally brought everything together, with the exception of a very small area where the skin laps. If needed I'll scarf those joints when I disassemble things........

Same issue here

Well, I'm having the same challenges as the rest of you with the cockpit rails. Even pulling mine in with cargo straps I'm still about 1/16 from the vertex of the angle, let alone getting it to overlap the skin?

Here's the mid point where the longaron bends down. As you can see it's off by a bit, maybe 1/16 or so.


Then at the front end, yep it's out there too.


And holding the rear part of the deck in place it's closer here.


I guess I'm going to try more clamping, check the flanges again for 90deg bends (some threads talk about that, however I'm not hopeful that will give much) As far as I can tell the longarons are bent correctly and of course they are all drilled up so it would be hard to bend them much at this point. Good times for sure. It's interesting that with EVERYTHING else fitting so nicely with this kit, that this one area has such variability. You can see lots of posts about the topic, but no single fix.

????

Andy,
Have you strapped at the gear towers yet.....? When I did that it really brought me in a lot. That made by far the most adjustment for me......I actually started drilling there first and worked my way back. After it was all said and done and I released the strap, everything stayed where I wanted it to.
Tim

sapeloson said:

Andy,
Have you strapped at the gear towers yet.....? When I did that it really brought me in a lot. That made by far the most adjustment for me......I actually started drilling there first and worked my way back. After it was all said and done and I released the strap, everything stayed where I wanted it to.
Tim

Click to expand...

Yes, those pictures I posted are after pulling in the gear towers to the point that the flange is at the vertex of the angle (not the skin side). In my case that helped a bit, but it's still off by more than I'd like.

One of the things I have not seen mentioned in any of the other threads is what the impact is of having it not quite pulled in enough? I don't really care if it's just a visual thing when the canopy is opened if that's the only impact. However I suspect the first place I'll find the next challenge is installing the seat back support weldment and then the roll bar.

So I guess my question is, if I can make those two spots work through clamping, and then accept whatever edge position I get on the side deck, maybe that's good enough.

Seat back

Hey Andy,

I had no issues with the seat back support weldment, even though I didn't get the nice finish I wanted here.

Cheers,

DP

Thanks Don and Tim for your coaching? It's great to have the additional advice before tackling some of these things.

The short version is, I was able to get everything lined up and pulled in "good enough" to drill them.

Longer version is, I started with two straps on the gear towers and pulled them in line and drilled them as you advised. That worked fine and took about half o the problem out.



Next I installed the seat back brace weldment in place and clamped it down. This pulled in the back part of the assembly nicely as well.



Lastly, I removed the 6 clecos on the top of the side rail, allowing the part to float out and line up nicely. I pulled the center of the assembly together with two cargo straps as well until I was just starting to bow in the longarons. When I released the straps, everything had been pulled tight to the skins and lined up fairly nicely. I c-clamped the side rail in place withe the edges lined up, then went back and used a drift punch to line up the 6 holes and re-cleco them in place. This slightly pulled the rail back at just the vertex of the bend while the rest stayed lined up nicely. I am happy with the result and drilled and moved on.




While you could scarf the skins to reduce the layup. I think this area will be covered in fiberglass from the windscreen overlap as the roll bar goes just above this spot. Hope this all helps those doing the same thing in the future.

On to the next challenge!

I like it!

Cool Man........ Really Cool!

Exact same issue as Andy. Kit perhaps 12 months newer. Need a good 1/16 at the center bulkhead.