March 31st, 2013

Had a lot going on early in the week so didn't get much done at all this week.

Once I finished riveting the forward section, I wanted to get everything at a height where it would be easy to work on.  I tried sawhorses with rollers but it was too high.  I spend the early part of the week coming up with a better solution.  Ended up re-using the Harbor Freight moving dollies I'd already been using but made some sawed off sawhorses to get the height down.  I tied them in to the wood wing spar stubs I made when working on the F904 bulkhead and screwed it all together with deck screws.  Works great.

From Fuselage

The next night I made a rolling stand for the tail that would hold the fuse dead level, roll easily, provide good support, etc.  I just built it on the fly from available scraps.  Not pretty, but it works.

From Fuselage

I was off Friday so I went flying (beautiful day - dead smooth - shot some approaches since I haven't done any in a while - LOC 4 @ SFQ and the GPS 5 @ CPK).

Now that I had the fuselage stands the way I wanted and really solid, it was time to get down to business.

I still had some riveting to do with the aft skins below the longeron line, so I knocked that out first.

The next step is to drill the aft deck and rivet it. Once that's done, the fuse is rigid.  Van says take your time, get the fuse perfectly square fore and aft, then drill it.

The floor wasn't level, so it took a while.  Here's the forward section at the longeron bend finally level.

From Fuselage

Next the back deck gets levelled to match the forward fuse.

From Fuselage

Once that is done, triple (quadruple?) check it, clamp the back deck firmly in place, check it a couple of more times to make sure nothing moved, then start drilling the back deck to the longerons.

From Fuselage

From Fuselage

Before I can rivet the back deck in place, I still have some leftover housekeeping to do.  There is a spacer on the F710 bulkhead angle, and another spacer/elevator stop on the F711 bulkhead.  I also had a couple of pieces to prime.  I'll use the rattle can self etching primer for now, then hit it with some of the good stuff when I paint next time.

F710 spacer in place.

From Fuselage

The F711E takes a bit more fabricating.  It's made from a piece of .125 x 1 1/2" sheet.

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Once it was cut to shape and finished, I match drilled it to the F711 angle through the aft deck.

From Fuselage

From Fuselage