Ive been trying to fit the stainless steel pieces for the firewall. However, I
fear I may have an intractable problem with installing it as described in the
manual.
There is very little clearance between the rudder cable actuating horn on the
aft
rudder tube and the diagonal tube of the landing gear frame. I was able to
slip the card templates in there without much trouble, and after convincing
myself
that everything fitted, I transferred the (slightly edited) patterns to the
stainless steel sheet.
However, I cannot persuade the starboard side piece of steel to bend in a way
that
keeps it in contact with the tube of the landing gear frame, and thus clear
of the rudder mechanism, at that critical point. And thats before Ive tried
to overlay the bottom piece of steel to form the joint along that diagonal tube.
The P-clip that holds the starboard side piece of steel sheet to the lower
diagonal
tube of the frame forces it to be clear of the tube at the top, and the
protruding
end of the lower tube keeps the steel sheet away from the tube at the
bottom. I suppose theoretically it should be possible to panel-beat the required
complex shape but that is above my pay grade. Even so, to get 2 thicknesses
in just the right place and not rubbing on the rudder actuating horn might
be quite a challenge!
Possible solutions that have so far occurred to me are:
(1) Make a small piece of stainless sheet to cover just that area of the tube,
with a simple cylindrical bend, and somehow join it to the starboard side panel
and the lower panel further away so that there is only one thickness of steel
at the critical area. Anyone in UK done this?
(2) Try to make a complete new firewall in a slightly different location, as
suggested
in the Europa Club Hints & Tips - originally posted by by Graham Clarke
on 9 Dec 1995. He suggests putting the firewall in the plane of the vertical
members of the landing gear frame, so that is just in front of the bungees and
does not interfere with the rudder mechanism. Obviously it would need to be
made in at least 2 parts, but it looks as though it would be simpler to do that
the pyramidal design in the manual. Has anyone done this under LAA jurisdiction?
Is there a mod number?
(3) Does Graham Singletons phenolic firewall solve this problem? And if so, is
it still available? [Hello Graham, are you out there?]
Does anyone else have another idea? I dont feel like ripping out the footrests
to re-position the rudder tubes further forward, or removing the landing gear
frame to re-position it further aft!
All comments welcome.
in friendship
Rowland
Europa 435 G-RODO
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