Fuselage

February 21, 2006

Took down paint booth and cleaned up the shop. Riveted ELT bracket to baggage floor door. Door is hinged to the baggage floor and will swing up to access ELT.

February 22, 2006

Drilled, dimpled and riveted nutplates to the seat belt crotch strap anchors. Blind riveted the anchors to the seat ribs. Crotch straps will then be bolted to the anchors. Installation of the seat belts will come later.

February 23, 2006

There are a few components that get pre-riveted before putting the whole assembly back together. This is because some of these parts would be darn near impossible to rivet when in place due to space constraints. Left photo shows the reinforcement webs that fit on the side skins in the forward fuselage. This assembly is where the forward wing/fuel tank gets attached. The remaining two pics are the forward stiffeners after being riveted to the firewall angle brackets.

February 24-25, 2006

Dimpled, countersunk the flanges of the F-705 bulkhead. This could not be done prior to priming and assembly since the sideskins had to be match drilled to the bulkhead. Touched up primer after completing this work. I started to install the longerons to the aft section of the fuselage. I ran into a problem where the original countersunk holes were not deep enough and this left a pretty good gap between the skin and the longeron. Much to my dismay, I decided to remove the longerons and countersink the holes deeper to get a better skin to longeron fit. This set me back a day by the time I finished the countersinking then touching up the holes with primer. Lesson learned.

February 26-27, 2006

Installed the longerons to the aft fuselage assembly. Rolled over the assembly, then added the center section to the aft section. Clecoed on side skins and firewall assembly. Added remaining side stiffeners and lower longerons to the forward fuselage. Clecoed the two center floor stiffeners to the bulkhead and fuselage brackets.

February, 28, 2006

Bolted lower longerons to lower firewall brackets and dabbed with torque seal. Riveted center floor stiffeners to firewall and F-904 bulkhead brackets. It's easier to do this now before putting on the bottom skin.

After riveting the center floor stiffeners to the F-904 bulkhead brackets, I clecoed on the bottom skin followed by the two outboard floor stiffeners. This major assembly is now ready for riveting. Time to round up a riveting helper.

March 10-11, 2006

Spent a little time test fitting the main landing gear weldments to check the opening in the bottom skins where the gear legs come through. I ended up making the holes a little larger to accommodate the fit. This required removing the bottom forward skin again and cleaning up the hole and touching up with a little primer. Reinstalled the skin.