I made a start on rudder pedal installation while there is still easy access to the forward cabin area. I had previously documented assembling my Control Approach rudder pedal kit, so pulled those out of storage and jumped ahead to section 38.
Skipping over the instructions that have you assemble the Van's stock rudder pedals, I started by drilling the Delrin support blocks that will hold the rudder pedals on each side of the cabin. Using the bearing block mount plate as a guide, I drilled #12 holes into each bearing block about 1/8" deep (it doesn't take much drill pressure to drill into the Delrin!), and then moved to the drill press to finish drilling the holes all the way through to #10.
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| Drilling the bearing block on the drill press. I made sure the drill bit was perpendicular to the block prior to drilling, and first drilled each hole to #12, and then reamed to #10 |
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| Left bearing block holes came out perfectly matched with the mount plate holes. |
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| Right bearing block required some very minor deburring of the mount plate holes to get aligned, but once bolts were in place nothing was loose |
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| Bearing blocks temporarily bolted to mount plates and longerons, and rudder pedals inserted. Everything fit well |
I initially placed the rudder pedals in the aft most hole of the bearing blocks and the bearing block mounts in the aft location on the longerons.
I'll probably change this during final install, and my current thoughts are to keep the rudder pedals in the aft most bearing block hole, but move the bearing blocks to the forward location along the longerons.
That may work well for my 6ft frame, but it all depends on final clearances from the firewall with rudder pedals fully forward.
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| Left side rudder pedals held in bearing block |
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| Right side rudder pedals held in place |
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| Rudder cable arms centered within the tunnel |
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| Rudder pedal view from above. There will be another Delrin block (provided by Control Approach as part of the kit) that will attach to the rudder pedal support brace, and support the rudder pedals at the center |
Dates: October 23 2025
