Section: 34
Hours: 4

The flap actuator end needs to have a 1/16" hole drilled through the end so it can be safety wired. You  start by drilling a shallow hole perpendicular to the cylinder. You can then aim the drill bit in the shallow hole without the bit wondering off as you drill through towards the nut. I lucked out and the bit came out right at the nut on the first try.

I applied coat of Rust-oleum white enamel over the primer on the inside of the flap torque tubes. I wanted to be sure to have a good coat of paint in these prone to rust components. Condensation and exposure to moisture could ruin these tubes pretty quickly and it will be difficult to inspect the insides of these tubes later. The outsides of the arms on these tubes had already rusted through pinholes in the powder tube coating so I'm taking extra care to corrosion proof these.

Here is the torque tube installed in the fuselage.

There were multiple fiddly tasks to complete the assembly shown below. It took awhile to finesse the bolts into the torque tube ends where they insert into the central hub- you have to get the exact rotation and in/out to line up the holes. I used the rubber mallet sparingly to nudge everything into alignment.

After getting the torque tubes in place and moving without binding, I installed the flap actuator. It will be interesting to have an electric flap actuator.

My Mooney has a manual hydraulic pump for actuating the flaps. You pump the handle to lower the flaps and release the hydraulic valve to raise the flaps. A simple mechanical indicator shows the flap position (although I usually just look out the window to confirm the flap position).

I'm planning on installing a Garmin GAD-27 controller which has a computer controller that runs the flap actuator motor. You toggle a flap switch on the panel (or stick grip) to move to the next flap setting and the controller advances the motor the correct amount. The glass panel display shows the current flap setting. Sounds great in theory...

I still have to safety wire the actuator end and add a position sensor. Safety wire is at the airport and the sensor should be in the box that just arrived from Van's along with the firewall forward kit.

Section: 34
Hours: 1

I cleaned out the insides of the flap torque tubes by running scotch brite pads through and then taped up the holes and ends of the tubes. I decided to use Rust-oleum clean metal primer for the insides of these tubes. I sprayed a heavy coat inside the tubes and rolled the tubes to evenly spread the primer and then set the tubes on end to drain the excess paint.

Section: 35
Hours: 4

I spent the rest of the day installing the upper forward fuselage assembly.

The bulkheads rivet to the firewall.

Here's the attachment to the upper longeron.

Section: 34
Hours: 4

On to a new chapter today- I started work on the flap torque arm.

The kit comes with a handy layout template for assembling the torque arms at the correct angle to the actuator arm. You bolt the end arm to the template and slide the tube into the hub of the center assembly, measure out the proper width and then drill the mating holes.

Looks like everything came out nicely aligned.

The assembly is now drilled and ready for priming.

I finished up today installing the guide blocks where the rudder cables exit the central tunnel. The plans mention that the parts were included in the empennage kit. I rummaged for a couple hours through the left over parts from the empennage kit and could only find the small end pieces. The larger blocks with the groove were nowhere to be found. After tearing the garage apart I had the thought to check the fuselage kit materials list and discovered that the blocks were included in one of the bags of parts for the fuselage kit, not the empennage kit. Another instance of why it takes so long to build an airplane- there are thousands of small parts and finding them can often take hours...