November 25th, 2012

Finally got to put some larger parts together this week.  Nice to have something that is looking like the tail of an aircraft.

This week I finished up the longeron bends, then started assembling the tail cone.

Since I'd finished up the aft ends of the longerons in my last session, it was time to bend them as prescribed in the plans.  There are a couple of things that fall into the "dreaded tasks" category among RV builders, and this is one of those tasks.  You're going to take a nearly 15 foot long piece of aluminum angle, put a pretty significant curve in it (all while keeping it flat), then put a vertical bend in it (also keeping that straight), then twist it almost 20 degrees.  Fun note in the plans - "if you are within 1/16" of the template that should be adequate".  Love the understatement. :)

Plans page for the longerons:

From Fuselage

I don't have much in the way of pictures.  Basically you clamp it tightly in a vise (after a gazillion double-checks to make sure you really are bending it in the right direction), put a pre bend on it, then whack it with a rubber mallet (I used a deadblow hammer).  Move it an inch, do it again, etc.  Once you think you're close to what they want, lay it against the paper template to see how you did.

Repeat.  Take the unwanted bend out (oops, you mean you straightened it out more than you wanted when you made it level again???  try again).

Here's what it looks like when I'm getting close.

From Fuselage

The first bend on the right longeron took me nearly 2 hours before I was satisfied.

From Fuselage

From Fuselage

From Fuselage

From Fuselage

From Fuselage

Nov 18th, 2012

This week I finished up the F705 bulkhead assembly, then did the F706, F707, F708, F711 and F712 bulkheads.  Kind of nice working on the tail cone guys.  Not much to them.

Last week I fouled up a couple of the seat belt attach brackets.  Failed to notice some of the fine print on the edge of the plans and made a mistake match drilling them.  I ordered a couple more.  They arrived this week and I match drilled them to the F705B bar.


The F711 bulkhead is another two part unit. There are two basically identical bulkheads that get riveted back to back. The top center section is trimmed out per the plans to provide clearance for the elevator pushrod tube to connect to the elevators. Two large 1/4" flat aluminum bars provide reinforcement on each side and stick up vertically above the bulkhead. These will be used later to attach the empennage to the fuselage.

From Fuselage

Riveting the two bars to the F711 bulkhead.

From Fuselage

Completed F711 assembly.

From Fuselage

The last thing I did this week was dig out the longerons. It's finally time to use them. They came with the wing kit almost a year ago and have been hanging on the wall waiting for the day I could use them. The longerons are each about 15' long and have to be trimmed down to 173 7/16" inches. I must have checked the measurement a dozen times before I finally did the cut. Do *not* want to have to get another one of these because I messed up. The first thing they have you do is mark them up for left/right up/down fore/aft so there is absolutely no doubt about which is which. Then a couple of slots and a tang are cut out of the aft end to provide clearance for the F711 bars. Here's a shot of the cuts after they were more or less done.

From Fuselage

Next week I'll do the bends. Then it will finally be time to rivet some of the pieces together.