Apr 6 2003 - I worked on the front cabin consoles. Here is the LH side with the throttle quadrant. I made the mistake of fitting all the parts before mounting the CT83F assembly. For the top plate to sit down into the recesses of the throttle, the pre-punched holes are in the wrong location. This required re-fitting the assembly to the sides, gear box, and F804C bulkhead.

If you want the top plate to sit in the recesses of the quadrant do yourself a favor and fit all parts carefully before fitting to the side walls. Otherwise you'll have the top sitting about 1/4" too high which does not look as nice.

The RH console mounted. No problems on this side.

The front baggage parts painted and sitting in place. All nutplates are mounted and ready to go. I decided to go straight across rather than install the well on the left side.

Apr 8 2003 - I was having a real tough time routing the manual trim cable at the actuator - no routing worked without putting strain on the cable or chafing on the gear box hole. I then came up with the idea of angling the control in the panel. I made some 10 degree wedges that will go on each side of the panel around the actuator. I can then adjust the angle as desired and then tighten the nut down.

It's times like this I wish I had a mill! These were made from 1/4" flat stock, my small bandsaw, and a lot of filing. They still need a little more cleanup.

Here the actuator is mounted with the wedges. The cable nicely curves into the gear tower without touching the edges of the hole at all. It has an even radius bend and works smoothly with no binding on the actuator at all when mating it up.

A front view. An added benefit is that the 10 degree inward angle also helps clear the side sill when fully turned out. The plunger has been removed per the instructions and a black hole plug from Lowes snapped in place. Looks like it came from the factory this way!

Apr 19 2003 - Lots of progress after taking the time to prep, prime, and paint parts. The front seat is complete, the side sills are in, as is the mid cabin plates and weldment.

The front consoles are in so I started mounting the fuel valve. The rear angle is removable to get at the valve.

Here is a shot with the cover installed. I'll probably find some nice button head cap screws for some of these visible screw locations.

An overall view looking forward. The front roll bar is fit and both consoles in. So far the fuselage is turning out to be much easier than I expected. The dreaded gear boxes went together without a hitch and everything seems to fit just like it should.

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