Forward strut attachments

Today was very productive!  I started with the right forward strut attachments, completing the bend and the through-hole on the aft plate.  Then I slid everything half-outside the garage and worked on the left to get it up to the same spot.

As with all the 1/4" attach points, I keep them as 3/16" holes until everything is held in place together and can be match-drilled to the full 1/4" diameter.  This might be overkill since it needs to be a sloppy 1/4" for a slip-fit pin insertion, but it feels better to do it this way.  The final match-drill is so much more satisfying knowing there is no slop.

The Goat 1, 2, and 3 all use an AN42b eye-bolt for the cabane attachment to the strut.  Since my cabanes were already built, they were too long to do this without remaking the aft cabane tube.  Instead, I'm trying to redesign the junction.

This is the right strut attach point with a first look at the new cabane attachment.  It's not exactly done yet.  For starters, the connection is just a tab that the strut pin goes through, which could slip off the end of the quick-pin if the bungees broke.  Much better to have two tabs so the pin has to fall out all on its own.  I'm still thinking...

Here is the tab on the cabane.  Like I said, I'm not totally sold on this alone.  I'm thinking about a bent tab similar to the Goat-1 compression ribs (G1W13) using the two obvious bolts.  Then again, I might space apart the two tabs on the struts and slide this next to the fuselage carry-through tube to be inside the strut tabs and therefore captured.  We'll see.

I did shorten the main cabane tube by about a half-inch.  That was a definite committal moment.  But you know, reworking this joint is maybe a good way to show how forgiving the "boltalicious" Goat construction is.  Need to make a change after it's all built?  Just unbolt, make a new whatever, and bolt it back in.  Pretty awesome.  No welding or re-riveting needed.

One consequence of attaching the cabanes along with the strut quick-pin is they are pinched in closer to the center-line than on the original Goat designs.  This means the cabanes pinch and interfere with the seat-back, which is now too wide.  I could lean the seat forward a bit (which is what I did for now), or narrow the upper seat tube.

Finally, here is how I spent most of the day, with Goat hanging half-way in the garage and half-way out.  The forward struts are simply taped on the leading edge as a mock-up, but it was enough to make some measurements and sort out the lengths needed for setting the dihedral angle.

Oh also, the forward sweep cables really do make a big difference in holding the leading edge in place ... right at head-height in this orientation :-)