Bulkheads
The fuselage is made up of several bulkheads. These bulkheads must be assembled prior to use. The firewall is the forward most bulkhead then the center section, baggage compartment bulkhead and then the tail cone bulkheads all the way back to the aft bulkhead where the tailwheel and VS attach. March 6, 2002 - 2.1 hours
Unpacked all the fuselage parts, and started the inventory. There is a bunch of stuff in that box.
Parts of the fuselage. I just thought there was a bunch of stuff in the wing kit.
March 7, 2002 - 2 hours
Finished the inventory of all the fuselage parts and started storing them away.
March 14, 2002 - 2.1 hours
Finished fabricating all of the pieces needed for the firewall. Deburred all the firewall pieces and started drilling it all.
March 15, 2002 - 2.2 hours
Finished drilling out all the holes in the firewall.
All the firewall parts clecoed to gether (except for the recess).
March 16, 2002 - 3.75 hours
Dimpled and countersunk all the holes for the firewall. Etched and primed the aluminum parts of the firewall.
March 17, 2002 - 2.6 hours
Riveted together most all of the firewall except for the aux fuel pump doubler plate. I messed it up and will have to rebuild it.
Finished firewall excpet for the recess which is left out for access to the rudder pedels and the little fuel pump dubbler plate that I will come back to later. (I don't want to have to mix a batch of primer just for that little plate)
March 18, 2002 - 1 hours
Started putting the center section together. I started out by drilling the holes for all the snap bushings.
March 24, 2002 - 1.5 hours
Drilled, deburred and started riveting parts to the center section.
March 25, 2002 - 2.1 hours
Finished riveting the side pieces to the center section. Drilled and trimed the control column mounts and made the little spacer tubes for the center section.
Here's a picture of the spacer bars installed. Notice the flush side of the rivet is forward. If it was the other way it would interfere with the wing spar.
These are the control column mounts. The area that is removed is for weight savings and the tape was there to keep aluminum trimmings out of the bearing.
March 27, 2002 - 1.6 hours
Installed all the platenuts on the center section bulkhead and started preparing the cover support ribs to go on the center section.
March 29, 2002 - 2 hours
Finished up the center section bulkhead and started getting parts ready for the F-705 bulkhead.
Forward Side of the F-704 Center Bulkhead Assembly
Aft side of the Center Section Bulkhead
The center section is temporarily assembled with some fake wood spars for spacing.
March 31, 2002 - 7.5 hours
Fabricated all the little seat brace parts of the F-705 as well as the rear spar attach bars. Drilled and deburred all the bulkhead parts and primed all the parts.
I used a piece of angle iron and one of the particle board cut outs from the emp jig as a bending jig for the seat brace.
April 1, 2002 - 2.25 hours
Finished assembling the F-705 Bulkhead.
Close up of the seat brace assembly part of the F-705 Bulkhead
Here is where the rear spar of the wing attaches to the fuselage. The red wire is there simply to hold the little spacer so that I don't lose it while I work on other things.
Finished F-705 Bulkhead. This is the bulkhead that is just behind the seats.
April 2, 2002 - 0.6 hours
Started deburring and fluting the F-706 Bulkhead parts.
April 15, 2002 - 0.75 hours
Started fluting and deburring the rest of the bulkheads.
April 18, 2002 - 2 hours
Still deburring and fluting the bulkhead parts.
April 20, 2002 - 6 hours
Finished deburring, fluting, drilling and fitting the rest of the bulkhead parts.
April 21, 2002 - 6 hours
Prepared the bulkhead parts for priming. Primed the bulkhead parts and riveted them togther. Cleaned up a little bit now that all the bulkheads are done.
Finished F-706 Bulkhead with the elevator belcrank support ribs attached. The F-729 (horizontal one) is riveted and the F-728 (vertical one) is clecoed for assembly later.
Close up of the attachment of the belcrank support ribs to the F-706 bulkhead.
Picture of the F-707, F-708, F-709, F-710 Bulkheads.
Here is the F-711 and F-712 bulkheads. The F-711 is the one with the ears. The rivets missing are for the tailwheel attach (bottom) and the cross member that will rivet to the aft deck (top).
