Control sticks

Tonight I finished setting up the right hand control stick, by installing the stick grip. I still need to wire up the molex connector, but it’s great to see how it looks installed in the plane. The stick grip feels very comfortable, solid, and easy to manipulate.

The most time consuming part was cutting a slot in the control stick tube, and then drilling holes through the stick. However, the sleeve made for an easy guide and I was able to get it nicely finished. I primed the sleeve and then carefully routed the wiring down the tube and out the hole at the base of the stick tube. I had to enlarge the wiring hole with the step drill, then give it a slightly oblong shape to allow the wiring to pass through without difficulty. I used some mesh to serve as an anti-chaffing layer, and secured it with some shrink seal.

Front view of the right side stick. Note the wiring exiting the tube at the bottom.
Installed in the plane