Fuselage

July 1, 2006

A critical part of the fuselage construction is making sure that there is no twist in the fuselage as it is riveted together. Twist is eliminated when installing the aft deck. Both the forward and aft end of the fuselage are leveled then the aft deck is clamped in place and match drilled. This stiffens up the fuselage and keeps it from twisting during the remaining construction steps.

Here's a shot of the aft deck riveted in place.

July 2, 2006

Fit and match drilled the F-757 plates. These plates strengthen the seatback bulkhead and provide some reinforcement to the slider canopy that I will be installing.

July 3, 2006

Fit and match drilled the F-685 forward gussets to the forward ends of the longerons and the firewall angle. This adds support to the firewall.

July 4, 2006

Riveted the reinforcement angle to the elevator bellcrank channel. Fit and match drilled the seat belt anchors to the longeron. The seat belt cables attach to these brackets. They will be bolted in place later in construction.

July 5-6, 2006

Match drilled and riveted the lower elevator bellcrank channel to the F-706 bulkhead. Fabricated some miscellaneous elevator bellcrank parts. (No pics)

July 8, 2006

After looking over the plans more closely, I found that the F-711D angle  should have been riveted on prior to riveting the aft deck. The photo shows the angle riveted on. This was particularly difficult to reach due to the aft deck already being in place. Fabricated the F-710C spacer, F-711E spacer/down elevator stop and the F-712D up elevator stop. Also fabricated the F-798 shims. Deburred all these parts.

July 9-12, 2006

Pulled out the two aft top skins and the top j-stiffeners. Deburred the edges then clecoed to the fuselage. This required some further fluting and flange adjustments to the bulkheads for a better fit. Deburred and clecoed the F-665 gussets to the F-706 and F-707 to longeron intersections. Match drilled the skins to the ribs and stiffeners. Tried to cut and fit the F-6111 stiffener ribs to the forward ends of the F-7112 skin. The manual says that these need to be trimmed and twisted to fit to the shape of the skin. Well, I trimmed them too short to where they were not going to work, so I trashed them and ordered new ones. After the fact, I read on Mike Schipper's website the trick to installing them. I'll see what happens when I get the replacements.

July 13-14, 2006

Fit and drilled steps to the right and left fuselage. I started out the drilling process by using a #40 to drill the pilot holes then finished with a #30. I wasn't real happy with the gap at the bottom of the fuselage opening (I made the opening too large) but I can fix this later with some fiberglass. I was able to get them to fit flush to the skin by bending them a little to match the curve of the fuselage.

Tested the fit with the delrin block that supports the interior side of the step.

July 24-28, 2006  OFF TO OSHKOSH!

Check out my pics from Airventure 2006