I finished cutting, shaping, and drilling the aluminum brackets, as well as the nylon bearing surfaces. I was very careful to make sure there would be no slop in the system when I was drilling the holes. Somehow, once again, I managed to order the wrong size hardware, so everything is temporarily assembled with other bolts I had on hand. I'm going to write up a list, or maybe a spreadsheet, that lays out what length bolt is ideal for various depths of material, because I can't seem to get it right. I test assembled everything on my workbench, and marked my layout so I could transfer the brackets to the plane.
Next I marked on the front spar where I wanted the brackets to be, lined them up and clamped them, and started drilling holes. I drilled one hole at a time, making sure everything lined up before committing to another hole. I really didn't wanna screw this up!
Everything in place, at least temporarily:
As you can see, I left the actual sticks long because I wasn't sure what length I'd want. I'm going to have to give them both a slight bend so they'll have enough throw to clear the front spar, whilst remaining far enough forward to be comfortable. I'll have to disassemble when the correct hardware arrives, and I may paint everything for corrosion resistance. I also need to redo the cables - only one of the three cables has a turnbuckle, which means if the cables ever stretched or needed adjustment, you'd have a heck of a time getting things realigned. Regardless, I'm much happier with this setup - lower profile, much better geometry, and working on this gave me an idea for a really simplistic aileron trim that'd be pretty easy to implement.
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