Today was the first chance I had to really clamber around the cockpit and inspect all the nooks and crannies in the avionics bay and underneath the cockpit floor. This beast is just full of copper wire and cable. It's great to see the original Fokker manufacturer's plate by the cockpit door along with the inspection sign-off stamps, a nice piece of history.
Discussed a plan with Derrick for cutting and triming back one fuselage frame and then how we fit a "trolley" so the cockpit is mobile. The VHF antenna needs removing from the roof (temporarily) along with the battery mounting boxes on the forward bulkhead The last major structural item will be removing the cargo door screw-jack mechanism which is at head height and will avoid the need to wear a safety helmet!
Once that's done we can start to do some clean-up work and plan where to hook-up potentiometers to the control runs for the flight controls. Engine controls and trims can run directly off the quadrant (yes I did sit for a few minutes and play with the throttle and fuel levers!) and the nosewheel steering linkage runs straight out to the forward bulkhead.
I'm looking forward to next weekend.
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