Becca helped me a *ton* on riveting. There are many places on the fuse that require two people, and nearly all go much quicker with help. She's become not only a good bucker but knows how to read the plans, find the correct rivet callouts and notes, and does a lot of clecoing.
Just a note - the fuselage is sitting upside down at this point, so the pictures may look a bit funny. After nearly a month of working on this stuff upside down, it's starting to make sense, but it's very confusing to try to orient which side is right and left and what is up and down when it's like this. You get a lot of mental vertigo.
The first thing we did was rivet the 904 bulkheads to the side skins.
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Here's an inside view of the same area. There are a couple of small splice plates that bridge the gap between the F904 bulkhead (gold anodized parts) and the upper longeron (the longeron is a continuous [nearly 15 feet long] piece of aluminum angle that goes from the tail clear to the firewall along the shoulder of the aircraft). The longeron is the lowermost piece of angle in this picture.
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Once we got that knocked out, we moved into the forward section and did most of the AN426-3 rivets (F719 stiffener, F902 bulkhead) on both the left and right sides. The gold anodized structure to the right is the main spar carrythrough bulkhead for the wing spars. Far left you can just barely see the firewall (which is stainless steel). The naca vent in the lower left is for cabin fresh air (there is a nozzle/hose/regulator that will attach to it much later in the build).
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After we finished that we did some of the skin to longeron line between the forward and aft canopy skins.
I did quite a bit of noodling during this process. It's easy to get on a roll with the rivets and put in a bunch of rivets that should not be riveted yet because other skins will be attaching to that area at a later date. The plans are helpful, but there is a lot of information to absorb and you really need to pay attention to what you are doing.
Becca and I got rolling on the longerons and drove about 3 or 4 rivets I'll have to rivet out later because they need to be open to attach the forward upper skins.
Once we'd finished that up, we started on the left rear. The "think about it" factor went way up because there are so many rivets in this area. We did end up having to drill a few out because we put some in spots that were end rivets for the baggage rib and bulkhead.
This is the junction where the side F970 skin (lower right skin) is curved to meet the center section with the baggage ribs (upper skin in photo) and the tail cone (lower left skin in photo) . You're probably looking at about 90 minutes of riveting work right here. There are over 100 rivets in this area, and it's very tight underneath. I was very happy how this came out. Becca did a great job.
The big hole is where the left side step will attach to the skins/ribs.
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This is the same area from inside. There are 4 or 5 different sizes of rivets required depending on skin thickness, and a lot of working in tight spots to get the rivets set correctly. We only had 1 or 2 we had to drill out and re-do, which may be a record.
We're looking up at what will eventually be the baggage compartment floor. The vertical elements in the upper part of the photo are baggage compartment ribs - they will be covered with skins later. The bulkhead and structure attached to it is where the elevator bellcrank and pushrods will attach.
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Here's a view of the whole area after we knocked off one evening. Starting to come together.
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Sunday evening after Dad's birthday (great dinner Karen!) I had some time to see if I could get the fuse finished enough to roll over. Becca was doing homework, so I had to get creative trying to buck the rivets on either side of the spar. Put some 30lb dumbbells on top of the back riveting plate and it worked like a champ.
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Once I got done with that I did more or less the same thing on the forward skin where it meets the back of the firewall flange. At that point I was ready to roll the canoe. Big moment. Finally get to see this thing right side up.
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I did the roll in stages. At one point it ended up in a shallow climb attitude (or a tail dragger).
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And here is the required picture of the future RV grin when I sat in it and made airplane noises.
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I also tossed in the rudder pedals to get a feel for the leg room. There is ton. The pedals are one hole from the furthest forward position, and may need to come back another notch. Won't know for sure until I get the seat backs in and some cushions. At any rate, it is very roomy. Nice and wide at the shoulders as well.
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