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PmWiki /
CenterFuselageAmount of hours spent on the center fuselage: 46.5 February 21, 2009 - 1.5h Started drilling the longerons to the skins. I'm about halfway through and will hopefully finish this tomorrow. According to people on VAF it's not a problem if the longerons don't sit completely flush in the tail cone. I did manage to get the longerons flush more in the front.
February 19, 2009 - 1h I did notice when clamping the longerons to the skin, that especially at the tail section (where the horizontal stab will be attached) it won't sit flush with the edge of the skin. Have to find out if this will be a problem. There are some other places where it doesn't sit completely flush (see pic below) but I can solve that with some help I am sure.
 
Last task for today was match-drilling and drilling all the skin to skin holes and skin to bulkhead holes.
February 18, 2009 - 2h Today I took the 770 skins off and made the conical bends in them using some scrap angle and my backriveting plate. They came out ok and didn't crack.
 
February 17, 2009 - 2h OK. Problem solved; people on VAF were very helpful and with a lot more force I was able to line up the holes in the aft and center side skins. This also helped make the longerons shift to forward a bit and now they are not too short anymore!
 
After this I drilled the armrests inside the skins (had to do some fluting too).
I also did some testing with the steps (used to get on the wings). They fit, but definitely need a quite a bit of trimming later.
 
February 16, 2009 - 5h Today was fuse mating day :-) Putting the aft and center fuse together was easy and uneventful, but keep on reading...
  
I inserted both longerons from the front. These things are long enough that I even had to open the garagedoor!
 
Putting the 770 side skins on turned out to be a whole lot harder and in case of the left skin even impossible. Tried to call Vans for advice, but it turned out that they have a holiday today (presidents day) so I'll have to try tomorrow. No matter what I do, start cleco'ing from the front or from the back, the skins don't line up. And it's not a little bit, but sometimes 3/4 of an inch.
  
On top of that, it also turns out that the longerons are one rivethole shy from the front of the 770 side skin. Also have to find out if that is okay.
I'll write a note on Vans Ariforce and see if people have seen this before.
February 15, 2008 - 1.5h Lots of stuff to do around the house today, so not too much time in the shop, but every little bit is progress. Clecod, the 715 ribs on the bottom skins and both bulkheads, put the front 704 bulkhead in place and clecod to the skins. Then put all the seat skins back in place and clecod them to the ribs. Last I clecod the 704 sides back on and turned the structure upside down.
I decided to make some extenders for my sawhorses as well, because they are kind of short. This will be plenty to keep the fuse off the floor safely.
Last but not least I turned the aft fuse up side down and put it on the sawhorses.
Next shop session it will be time to finally bend that second longeron and put them both in place in the fuse as I am ready to put the aft and center pieces together!
February 14, 2008 - 5h Had my flight review signed off by my instructor Tom this morning, so I'm good again for 2 years. Rest of the day was spent on the center fuse and the 715 side ribs. I first clecod the seat skins and bagage skins to the structure.
This was followed by fitting the 715 ribs in between the bottom skin and the seat skin. The centerline pretty much was visible through the rivet holes, except for all the way at the end (close to the 705 bulkhead: there the drilled holes came out a bit closer to the flange; I think this is okay and won't compromise the strength of the structure.
 
Then the 715 rib was drilled the the side of the 704 bulkhead. I made sure the top has about 0.032 inch between the seat skin edge and the rib flange. I assume that's to make it easier to put the seat skins in later.
When that was all done, I did some deburring and cleaning of the 715 ribs and primed them.
February 12, 2008 - 2h My neighbor Adriana came by tonight to help rivet the center bottom skin to the ribs and the 705 bulkhead. We didn't touch the back and front two rows because the front and aft skins will attach there. To make life easier we just flipped the skin on it's side; that way I didn't have to crawl underneath with the gun!
February 9, 2008 - 1.5h Riveted and bolted all the seat and bagage ribs to the 704 and 705 bulkheads respectively.
 
February 8, 2009 - 5h Good day in the shop tonight and because the weather was so nice I could open the garage doors to let the sun in and the painting smells out. I deburred and dimpled the center bottom skin and primed the top side with rattle can SEM (I love this stuff!).
 
Dimpled the bottom flanges of the 704 bulkhead halves and the 705 bulkhead. I made sure that I did not dimple the countersunk holes where the front stiffeners are going to be and also didn't do the five holes on both sides where the landing gear attachment is going to be as I'm not sure yet what this will look like (shop head on the inside according to the instructions, but I don't understand what that's will look like in the end). After that I started riveting the seat ribs platenuts and the openings in the two middle ribs.
 
Last but not least I started to rivet the seat ribs to the 704 back half and torqued the AN3 bolts on. By the way the small stars around the shopheads are normal.
February 7, 2009 - 3h After a nice flight from KILG with an instructor this morning and some ground school (I need to do my flight review before the end of the month) I managed to finish deburring and dimpling all the ribs. This was followed by cleaning and priming.
I also took the protective material from the center bottom skin. I also enlarged the two snap bushing holes in the center of the 704 bulkhead halves to 3/4 inch. Tomorrow I plan to debur and dimple the skin and then the center fuse can go back together! Oh did I manage I am featured in the EAA Chapter 240 newsletter this month?
February 5, 2009 - 2h Pfeww, this deburring, dimpling thing is taking longer than I thought: more of the same tonight...
February 3, 2009 - 3h More scotch-briting, deburring and dimpling of ribs tonight. Had to do some more drilling of the bagage ribs, because my batteries will be in the aft fuse. Also enlarged the two center holes in the 705 bulkhead to 3/4 inch for the larger snap bushings. I guess these battery cables must be pretty thick!
February 1, 2009 - 4h More work on the center fuse today. I got every hole match-drilled incl. the 623 ribs and attach strips.
I removed the 704 after bulkhead half and drilled the holes where the spacer bolt goes to 1/4 inch. Did the same to the forward half of the bulkhead. After that put the two halves together and cleco'd them to the skin. This was followed by cleco'ing the 704H sides to the bulkhead and match-drilling all parts.
After all of that I started to take the center fuse apart again and dimple and debur ribs and parts. This is going to be the work for the next couple of days. After priming I'll have to go back to forming the longerons as I will need them to join the aft and center fuselage together!
January 30, 2009 - 1h Work (the thing I do for a living so I can pay for this plane :-) has been crazy this week and I haven't had much chance to be in the shop. Finally an hour again. I fabricated the 623 rib attach straps (back and forward) and clamped both 623 ribs to the center bottom skin in preparation for drilling.
January 27, 2009 - 1.5h Finished cleco'ing the bottom skin and match-drilled all holes except the last two rows as called out on the plans. These are drilled together with the bulkhead and aft fuse bottom skin later.
I turned the structure around to start fitting the 623 ribs. Hmmm, this looks a bit tricky and I'll have to think about a good method to get these nailed down.
When I was at it, I also marked the F715 side seat ribs where they should be fluted.
January 25, 2009 - 0.5h I clecod the bagage ribs and seat ribs (including spacers) to the 705 bulkhead, turned the structure upside down and started cleco'ing the skins on.
January 24, 2009 - 2.5h Drilled all the 5/8 inch holes for the electrical wiring and pitot tubing. Removed some material from the flanges of the inner seat ribs for the existing holes in the 704 bulkhead. Cleco'd the ribs to the 704 bulkhead.
 
Used the flycutter to make 1.5 inch holes in the 725 bagage ribs; this will be used for the side steps later. 
January 23, 2009 - 1h Edge deburred all the seat ribs. Straightened and fluted the bottom flanges.
January 22, 2009 - 1.5h Since I'm waiting for a bucking partner to rivet the aft fuse together I've started on the center fuselage. First I fabricated the 916C spacers.
Next was cutting a hole out of four of the seat ribs (I did this using my flycutter in the drill press) followed by trimming the remaining pieces away with a cutting wheel in my Dremel.
 
Last but not least I cut out the top of the ribs so that the control system can pass through. These are going to be closed again using seat rib access plates. I clecod these on for now.
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