Interior Reassembly (2)

 2 hours

This was quick and easy and got a lot of parts off my shelves!  With the seat totally done, I went ahead and installed the cockpit side panels, stick boot, and seats.

I had to cut some extra clearance into the side panels for the big wire bundle, and the canopy switch on the other side.

I had to take the stick grip off to get the boot on, but besides that all the upholstery just velcros to the seat.

My little dude found it comfy enough so I think it's good to go.

Seat Installation (2)

 2 hours

Everything that lives under the seat is installed now, so I went ahead and riveted the seat on!

Seatbelts (1)

 1 hour

The seatbelts were the last things that needed to go in before I could rivet the seat on.  They went in fine, except I forgot to drill out the inboard mounting holes to their final size whenever I put the whole fuselage structure together, so I had to cut a little access hole in two seat ribs to drill those holes to 5/16" for the seatbelts.  Then they went right in!

Cockpit Air Vents (4)

4 hours

There are a few options for getting fresh air into the cockpit.  I've seen some pretty nice Naca inlets ducted to eyeball vents, the snap-in windshield vents (which I have), and the RV-10 back seat vents.  I live in Texas at the moment, so I plan on flying in pretty hot weather.  Therefore I want all the air I can get!  I already did the windshield vents, but I've read that some lower-body cooling would be a big help.  Based on cost, complexity, and weight, I decided to install the RV-10 vents rather than Naca inlets with ducts and all the associated parts.

Vans sells all the parts needed to install these vents for about $20 a pair.  They're made for the back seats of an RV-10 which I think would have all the required holes already cut in the fuselage sides.  Even starting from scratch it was pretty simple to get these installed though.

I started by deciding where I wanted to place them.  I sat in the seat and just reached forward as far as I could without leaning forward, and made a sharpie mark on the inside of the side skin.  I figured I'd put it as far down as forward as I'd be able to reach with seatbelts on.  Then I drilled the doubler plate from the kit to the side skin, removed it, and clecoed it back on the outside so I could work from out there.

I traced the hole in the doubler on to the skin to give me an initial hole to cut out.

I cut this hole out, and then I was able to install the inner part of the door into the hole.  Then, I could trace the outer surface of the door onto the skin and enlarge the hole to match that.

Then the hole door fit in the hole with the outer surface nice and flush with the outside of the fuselage.

You can see here how the hole is now slightly larger than the doubler plate.  The door closes against the doubler and leaves it flush with the skin.

Here's the finished product:

Here's the inside:

And here's what it looks like open:

After that I repeated the whole process on the right side!