Fuselage
December
30, 2005
Match drilled cabin floor stiffeners to bottom skin. Plans
call for this to be a two man job but I made it a one man job. I drilled
and clecoed the ends of each stiffener to the bulkheads and fuselage then
clecoed on bottom skin and drilled.
January 2-5, 2006
Happy New Year! I started off the new year
by finishing the remaining match drilling on the center and forward
fuselage sections.
January 15, 2006 marks the fourth
anniversary of the start of this project. When I started
the project, I had guessed that it
would take me 3 years to complete the project, but obviously I have fallen
way short of that goal. For the most part, I have enjoyed the building
process. But like anything else, there are ups and downs. I can only say
that I'll keep plugging away and eventually the piles of parts will become
an awesome flying machine. Builders that have completed their projects
always say "Keep pounding those rivets, it's all worth it". Well, that's
become my motivation, however long it takes.
January 21-29, 2006
Disassembled the forward fuselage parts, including
removing the center section from the aft fuselage assembly. It's now time
to get all the pieces and parts, skins, stiffeners, gussets, brackets etc.
deburred, dimpled and prepped for the priming process.
Left - Machine countersinking the bottom firewall angle.
Right - Deburring the right side skin.
Dimpling the right side skin.
I purchased and installed the
Safeair1 static
ports on the aft fuselage in the location per plans.
January 31-February 1, 2006
I have decided to make the baggage floors removable to
allow access for any future additions to electrical, inspections of seat
belt anchor bolts and installation of an ELT. I drilled out the rivet
holes in the ribs and along the top of the F-705 bulkhead to #8 screw
size. Since I wanted to use flush screws on the ribs, I dimpled the
rivet holes along the top flanges of the ribs and installed countersunk
nutplates. Along the top flange of the bulkhead, I'll use regular pan
head screws and regular nutplates. I also dimpled the appropriate holes
in the floor panels.
February
2-3, 2006
I purchased and installed
Van's seat belt crotch strap anchor kit. Installation is pretty
straightforward. The picture at left shows the .125 aluminum bar I used
as spacer while match drilling. Left photo is completed right assembly
drilled in place (less bolt hole for crotch strap). Bolts for attaching
the crotch strap are included with the kit.
I am installing my ELT under the left side baggage
floor. I made a cutout in the floor, fabricated a hinged coverplate, and
will mount the ELT mounting plate to the coverplate. I'm still searching
for hardware that doesn't require tools to latch down the cover. There
are some spring loaded
Camloc fittings (See KM series fasteners) that will work well
if I can find a supplier for them.
