Still working the forward fuselage. There is a lot happening in the front of the aircraft.
The brackets the engine mount bolts to are similar, but different then the Cessna brackets. The plans call for 7 rivets on each side of the bracket for a total of 14 rivets. It looked a little light duty for holding an engine on the front of the plane.
The Cessna brackets are triangular while the ones supplied by M-Aero are more rectangular.
Being rectangular and with the amount of overlap on the forward fuselage side channels, I was able to get 9 rivets per side.
That's 4 rivets more per channel.
A slight increase on weight, but more structural support for the engine.
It is more like a squared off "U" and the bracket fits inside of the channel. One side of the bracket has total surface contact with the channel. The other side has about 2/3 contact with the channel.
That means less riveting area.
One thing I need to figure out is what to do with the firewall. On the bottom of the firewall, where the forward tunnel area is, there are two wings of material that bend into the tunnel area.
Before I rivet the engine mount brackets on to the channels, I have to find whether the firewall wings rivet to the side channels.
Enough for this weekend.
Brian
Brian, what do you do with the bottom firewall 'flaps'? Do you fold these 90 deg and tuck these in between bracket and channel?
ReplyDeleteJerry
Jerry,
DeleteThe bottom flaps of the firewall go between the engine mount bracket and the floor support channel. The pictures that are in my last post do not show it that way. I'll get a fresh picture and publish it next weekend. My 3 month struggle with the lower engine mounts are drawing to a close. These have been the toughest parts to get riveted in place!
Later,
Brian W.
P.S. Sorry to take so long to get back to you. Job change and the frustration of these parts!