I spent a lot of time (a lot of time!) thinking about how I was going to route the control cables before I drilled any holes. I started with the elevator cable system. My builder's manual does not even mention the fact that one of the elevator cables will have to pass through the FUS-30 bulkhead in the tailcone. There is no mention of locating and cutting a hole in this bulkhead, but that is what you have to do to route the cable to the mixer arm. So how do you locate where the hole is supposed to be cut? Well, I just made a good guess.

I started by locating and marking the centerline of the FUS-30 bulkhead. I measured the distance between the horizontal bulkhead and the bottom of the fin attach bracket. I marked a point on the FUS-30 which was one half this distance. Then, between the one half mark and the bottom of the fin attach bracket I marked off one half that distance. At this point I drilled a #30 hole in the FUS-30.

I ran a taut string to simulate the cable, from the elevator cable pulley located at the rear floor in the fuselage, through the #30 hole to the top of the mixer arm. I noted which edge of the #30 hole the string rubbed against and enlarged the hole in that direction. When I had enlarged the hole enough so that the string was centered in the opening, I continued to enlarge it until I could move the elevator mixer arm through it's full range without the string (and subsequently the cable itself) abrading the sides of the hole. The finished size of the slot is just under 1/2" wide and 1 3/8ths inch in length.

Ok. Now the second problem with the elevator cable routing. My builder's manual shows installation of the foreward most cable guides/fairleads located just aft of the seat belt floor bracket. But when I looked at this, it appeared that a cable running from this point to the top arm on the control column would be well in excess of the 3 degree deflection allowed by AC 43.13-1B when using fairleads. I looked at moving the foreward most fairleads further aft in an effort to decrease the angle, but to get to that point just opened up quite a long distance that the cable ran unsupported. So I trashed that idea.

What I've done is to install a double pulley, similiar to the one located in the tailcone, between the seats and riveted over the double floor bulkhead G. This brings the elevator cable off the top arm of the control column to floor level, then both cables will run through fairleads on the floor to the rear elevator pulley.

It has always been my intention to fabricate and install a center console to cover the exposed cables anyway, so this pulley will also be covered.

Well that covers the issues I found with the elevator cables. Part Two-Rudder Cables, will follow.

Roger Hoffman #687R

Eugene, OR USA!