Detail section 11.2

 

In my correspondence with the contact engineer he told me I will have to trim a little off two bolts on the tailwheel spring so that the rearmost diagonal braces will fit. I used a Dremel so took the barest possible amount off.

 

I corresponded a lot with the engineer recently because there was a lot of head scratching with those fuselage diagonals. It should be that you may have to coerce the pieces a couple of millimetres to get them in place. But I found my first diagonal was 36mm short! Had everyone scratching their heads. Finally Errol, the Bushcat dealer came over (luckily we aren't too far from each other) and he found himself scratching his head too. He called the factory and talked to the engineer and the manager. A light bulb went off for Errol though and while undoing the bottom longeron to see what the diagonals would do without it, he realised that loosening off the bolts let it fit properly. The bottom longeron has two bolts. Taking out the second bolt lets the longeron swivel a bit. Once everything was aligned it all fitted beautifully and the second bolt can be put back in.

 

A programming friend once told me I am the perfect beta tester because I always find that combination of things that no else has tried that will lock up the computer. Looks like that 'talent' has transferred over the airplane building because this is the first time this phenomenon has happened with this particular kit ?

 

I still don't quite understand why it did it, but my own thought is that if I were to build one again I would leave those two bolts loose until all the diagonals are in place and then tighten everything up. It may well be that by the time you are building this kit, the manual will suggest that also.