DATE: 01-14-2026 – TIME: 03:48 – 4:30 ~ :00
While it looks like I spent 6 hours building today that’s not exactly the case as you will see from the snapshots. I started by doing some basic tidying up and then reorganizing the layout a bit to provide a better camera view of the work being done. Most of which is going to be focused on forward fuselage sub-assembly and then continuing with the attachment of the forward fuselage to the rear fuselage.
FF-04 is really concerned with assembling the rudder and brake pedals onto the cabin floor. I had purchased the dual brake option, for passengers, so I had that hardware but, what seemed strange was that despite having purchased both the fuselage kit and the controls kit, and while the rudder pedals and the brake pedals were a part of the controls kit, the master brake cylinders were not.
Without the brake master cylinders you don’t have any way to determine what the correct distance between the brake cylinder support brackets, C75C3-7, should be. Also, the rudder centre bearing, which is nylon, on page FF-04, specifies 3 AN3-16A bolts with a washer under the nut, while on page FF-08 it specifies 17A bolts.
As I had neither because they were not on the pick list for either the fuselage or the controls kits I emailed Roger. Roger explained that they don’t ship the brake master cylinders with the controls because they order them at the same time as they order the wheels and the landing gear is part of the finishing kit. It’s a cost issue and he suggested I purchase the master cylinders from the online store and then ask for a credit when I order the finishing kit.
So I did that. I ordered the master cylinders kits from Zenith and in the meantime ordered 10 x AN3-16A bolts and 10 x AN3-17A bolts from Aircraft Spruce.
As I mentioned, I like to have washers under the heads of the bolts so when it came time to bolt the rudder bearing in place I used the 17A bolts.
Also, I had already had the rudder pedals powder coated which prevented putting them into the C75C3-6 lateral end bearings so we had to sand off some of the powder coat. If you are going to powder coat I would recommend not powder coating the last 2 or 3 inches from the end of each rudder pedal.
All I really did was assemble all the various parts onto the bench and laid out where they go.