I took off the HS and VS to work more comfortably. Then I installed these nutplates, and squeezed the last three rivets in that little angle bracket that the VS bolts to. I ended up making that bracket (formally known as F-712D, Up Elevator Stop) twice. The first one, made to the dimensions in the plans, did not stop the elevator...the rear bulkhead did. So I made a second one, about 1/16" larger, that did the trick. The milling machine at work (and a buddy or two to show me how to use it!) made them easy.

I wanted a place to store all the stuff that otherwise floats around the baggage compartment of a typical lightplane: extra bottle of oil, tool kit, fuel sample, etc.

So I took a deep breath and cut into my baggage floor skin, added a doubler and a hinge, and then a door. The door is thicker than the surrounding metal (0.040") to make it a bit stiffer. I still haven't figured out what kind of latch I want.

Then I finally got around to hanging the center bearing block for the rudder pedal tubes. You can move the rudder pedals fore and aft by drilling extra holes (you can see I have two positions drilled for now.) I'm still not sure how much leg room I want (I don't have my seat cushions) so I'm leaving this bracket long to allow me to drill even more holes. I may leave it long anyway just in case the next pilot has shorter legs.