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Home Project News January 20, 2021 Project Log Empennage Horizontal Stabilizer Vertical Stabilizer Rudder Elevators Rudder II Wing Kit Wings Fuel Tanks Ailerons Flaps Fuselage Kit Bulkheads Aft Section Foreward Section Top Fuselage Cabin Finish Canopy Cowling Electrical Firewall Forward Fuel System Engine Baffles Misc Miscellaneous Fiberglass Assembly Panel Finishing Up! FAQ Project Notes Project Summary Guestbook Other Stuff | Riveted the top skins on. I didn't back rivet these and they seemed to turn out better. I had trouble keeping the rivets straight with the backrivetter. I also took the wing out of the jig! Now I can take down these two posts.
Primed all the aileron parts. Backriveted the stiffeners to the aileron skins, formed the trailing edge bend and started assembling the skeletons.
I took down the emp/wing jig and cleaned up a little. Worked on the forward aileron skeletons some more. Attached the aileron hinges and aileron gap seal to the left wing, started on the flap brace. Finished installing both sets of aileron hinges, aileron gap seals and flap braces.
Installed the aileron belcrank in the right wing. Drilled the ribs and spars of the right aileron, drilled and countersunk the counterbalance pipe, dimpled and countersunk all the holes and assembled the aileron. Also bolted on the hinge brackets.
Installed the right aileron on the wing and started drilling out the reinforcement plates on the left aileron. Finished putting the reinforcement plates on the aileron spar, riveted the leading egde ribs to the spar and riveted the counterbalance pipe to the ribs.
Finished Drilling all the holes in the left aileron and started deburring, dimpling and countersinking everything. Finished deburring and countersinking all the parts for the left aileron, and finished riveting it together. Mounted the left aileron to the wing. Cut, primed and assembled both aileron control rods. Installed and adjusted the control rods to the ailerons.
Installed the nylon corrugated wiring conduit in the wings.
Cleaned up a little, got all the Flap parts out of storage and started fabricating the little reinforcement brackets. Finished fabricating the reinforcement bracket and started deburring all the edges of the flap parts.
More deburring of flap parts Deburred the edges of the flap skins Fabricated the little F-708 spacers and and started fitting the ribs to the flap skins and spar. Drilled the flap ribs to the bottom skin and drilled the hinge to the bottom skin and spar.
Finished drilling all the skins to the spar and ribs. Also drilled the little bracket to the forward side of the spar. Finished bending, drilling, countersinking and deburring all of the parts on the left flap. Still drilling holes in flaps but now I am on the right one. Drilled the top skin to the right flap ribs and spar and started drilling the brackets to the inboard rib. Finished drilling all the holes in the flaps, dimpled all the holes in the flaps and got all the parts scuffed and ready to prime. Decided to go back and work on the tail some more. I bolted the counterweights on the elevators and the rudder. Also got the fiberglass tips out and started contemplating fiberglass. Primed all the parts of both flaps. Riveted the actuator brackets onto both flap spars and inboard ribs. Started riveting the left flap together.
Finished riveting the left flap together.
Riveted the ribs to the bottom skin of the right flap Finished riveting together the right flap. Cut, cleaned and etched the aileron push tubes. Started fitting some of the fiberglass parts on the empennage Primed the inside of the aileron push tubes with the DuPont two part epoxy primer. Started cutting and fitting the wing tip to the right wing. Riveted the aileron push tube together.
Finished drilling pilot holes on the right wingtip.
Still trying to fit the right wingtip. Fit and drilled the W712 rib. I'ts going kinda slow but I want to get it right.
Finished installing the platenuts on the right wingtip. Now all that tip needs is the lights and the lense cover. Started fitting the left wing tip. Vern came over and helped me make a couple of layups on the fiberglass tail pieces. It really helps to see it done once, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be
Did a couple more layups on the tips of the HS and elevators. While waiting for the shop to warm up and layups to cure I finished the rib and platenuts on the left wingtip.
Sanded and formed a couple of the empennage tips that I had layed up before. It was too cold to attempt any mixing of resin. Unpacked all the fuselage parts, and started the inventory. There is a bunch of stuff in that box.
Finished the inventory of all the fuselage parts and started storing them away. Finished fabricating all of the pieces needed for the firewall. Deburred all the firewall pieces and started drilling it all. Finished drilling out all the holes in the firewall.
Dimpled and countersunk all the holes for the firewall. Etched and primed the aluminum parts of the firewall. 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.
Started putting the center section together. I started out by drilling the holes for all the snap bushings. Drilled, deburred and started riveting parts to the center section. 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.
Installed all the platenuts on the center section bulkhead and started preparing the cover support ribs to go on the center section. Finished up the center section bulkhead and started getting parts ready for the F-705 bulkhead.
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.
Finished assembling the F-705 Bulkhead.
Started deburring and fluting the F-706 Bulkhead parts. Started fluting and deburring the rest of the bulkheads. Still deburring and fluting the bulkhead parts. Finished deburring, fluting, drilling and fitting the rest of the bulkhead parts. 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.
Mounted my vise to the table. Cut the F-718 R&L Longerons to length and started trimming the back of the longerons where they meet the rear F-712 bulkhead. Finished the trimming on the aft end of the longerons and started bending the longerons
Finished bending the longerons
Drilled the aft caonopy decks to the longerons and finished bending and twisting both longerons. Started fitting the two aft bulkheads, the tail wheel spring mount and the lower tailcone skin together.
Almost finished trimming and fitting the aft bulkheads to the tailwheel spring mount. Started assembling the tail section.
Drilled the mounting hole for the tailwheel spring and still tweaking the fit of the tailwheel spring mount.
Finally got the tailwheel mount to fit like I want. Finished clecoing in all of the bulkheads to the rear fuse section. Flipped the fuse over and hung a couple of plumb bobs to check alignment. Rechecked the alignment of the fuselage and started drilling out holes. Finished drilling the holes in the rear fuselage section and started taking it all back apart, deburring and dimpling holes. Still deburring and dimpling Finished deburring and dimpling all the skins, and primed all the parts of the aft fuse section Reassembled the aft section and started riveting it together.
Modified the four inboard seat ribs. Deburred the edges of the seat and baggage floor ribs. Clecoed the seat ribs, baggage ribs, to the bulkheads and clecoed the center bottom skin to this assembly.
Finished drilling all of the parts of the center fuselage section.
Deburred, dimpled all the center fuselage section parts, and got them almost ready to prime. Primed the seat and baggage floor ribs as well as the other little parts of the center fuselage section Got the wife to help me rivet a few of the bulkhead to bottom skin rivets. Finished riveting the tail section except for the parts that will be done when joining the other sections of the plane. Riveted the seat ribs to the center section bulkhead and the seat back bulkhead. Also riveted the baggage floor ribs to the seat back bulkhead. Riveted the center bottom skin onto the skeleton. Clecoed and drilled the seat and baggage floor skins to the skeleton as well as drilling the outside seat ribs to the center section bulkhead. Cut the notches in the longerons so that they will fit around the bars that hold the HS to the Fuselage. I also mounted the longerons on the aft fuse section.
Finished riveting the last of the seat ribs to the center bottom skin and bulkheads. Clecoed the center fuselage section to the tail cone.
Drilled the arm rests to the side skin and bulkhead. Fit the F-623's to the bottom skin and bent the curve on the back of the F-770 side skins.
Finally got around to cutting the notches in the aft canopy decks. Started drilling the longerons. Finished drilling the longerons up to the aft edge of the center section bulkhead. Trimmed the forward end of the longerons to fit. Finished drilling the longerons forward of the center section. Started fitting and clamping the firewall Finished fitting and drilling the firewall to the fuselage assembly. Fabricated the F-717 longerons and the F-719b clamp pieces and started trying to fit the F-713 longerons. I ran into a little snag on the F-713 see the note.
Fitted and drilled the F-713 Aux. Longerons and the F-719 stiffeners to the side skin. Also started preparing and twisting the F-717 lower longerons.
Fabricated the F-684 gussets and drilled them to the lower longerons. Fluted and straightened the F-902 forward bulkheads and clecoed them to the skins. Fitted the F-7101 gear attach plate and clecoed it in place.
Installed the angle and spacers where the fuel tank attach bracket will attach. Finished drilling all of the forward fuselage structure and started putting the brake pedals together.
Finished building the brake pedals and assembled the whole brake/rudder pedal assembly. Also trial fit the rudder pedal assembly to the fuse.
Still trying to fit and install the rudder pedal assembly. Trimed the center bracket that holds the rudder pedal assembly. Finally finished drilling the rudder/brake pedal attachment holes in the fuselage. Fluted, clecoed and drilled the aft bulkheads to the skin. Clecoed the baggage compartment side skins in. Remade and drilled the F-684 gussets. Drilled the remaining parts of the forward fuselage compartment structure and finished up drilling some of the other odd and end holes that were still undone.
Realized that the floor stiffeners that I have are wrong and will have to get some replacements from Van's. Not much else to do but I drilled the holes in the forward bulkheads for the rudder cables and went back and drilled the holes in the flap bushings since I had forgotten to do that before. Drilled the floor stiffeners to the blukheads and the bottom skin
Disassembled the fuselage for deburring and dimpling. Countersunk the longerons, dimpled the aft section of the fuse where the longerons attach. Deburred and dimpled all the parts of the center fuse section and finished drilling the flap bushings while I had it all apart.
Deburring parts of the forward fuse. More deburring and countersinking of forward fuselage parts. More deburring and dimpling of forward fuselage parts. All I have left are the skins. Deburred the forward fuselage skins. Still dimpling Finished all the dimpling, primed all the forward fuse parts. Installed all the platenuts on the seat ribs and ran a tap through the outer seat ribs since they will be so close to the skins. Started putting the forward fuselage back together and riveting all the things that must be riveted before the side and bottom skins go on. Finished up the rivets and bolts of the forward fuse that have to be done before the skins go on, and started finishing up all the rivets that were left undone on the tail cone.
Riveted one of the side plates to the side skin and peeled off a lot of plastic. Finished riveting the tail section. Riveted the center section plate to the left side skin, and clecoed both side skins to the frame. Clecoed the floor skin and floor stiffeners to the frame and checked whether the whole thing was straight.
Henry came over and helped me pound a few rivets in the side skins. More riveting of the fuselage. Shannon helped me and we got most of the rivets done forward of the F-704 Finished riveting the lower fuselage together, and turned the 'canoe' over. Also installed the false wing spars and built a little castoring stand for it. I temporarily put the seat skins in and sat in my airplane for the first time and made airplane noises.
Finished up the last rivets of the bottom of the fuselage. I left the angles off of the F-710 and F-711 bulkheads where the aft deck attach because I thought that I could make them fit better if I waited until the longerons were on. I will be able to make them fit better but I need a better right angle drill to get in there. I made those two angle pieces. Also leveled the fuselage. Had to re-level the plane since my little 2x4 clamped to the tail idea won't work because I need to install the aft deck back there. :-( Anyway I just used the false spar stand to level the plane with nothing more than a sawhorse on the back. I also went ahead and riveted the aft side skins to the longerons up to where the top skins will go. Trimmed the F-757 gussets and dug out the seat belt anchors and other gussets from storage.
Drilled the little angles to the F-710 and F-711 bulkheads. Fabricated the spacer and the forward elevator stop that goes under the aft deck and got the aft deck clamped onto the fuse.
Drilled the aft deck to the longerons and bulkheads
Drilled the shoulder harness anchors to the longerons. Drilled the forward firewall gussets to the firewall and longerons. Installed the corrugated nylon tubing in the fusealge as a wire run. Installed the rudder cables and drilled the little Avery rudder cable fairings to the side skin. Finished up the bellcrank support rib and fabricated the little tubing spacers for bellcrank. Finished the stringers for the top fuselage. Started fitting the top skins and drilled the little gussets to the F-706 and F-707 bulkheads.
Drilled the top skins to the Fuselage.
Started getting some of the baggage compartment walls ready to install. Installed another support under the baggage compartment for my fuselage wiring run. Rivted in the two side walls and the two floor skins of the baggage compartment. Started installing the rear baggage compartment bulkhead walls.
Drilled the baggage compartment bulkhead covers, and made the little plastic wear guards for the shoulder strap anchor cables. Finished riveting the nutplates to the baggage compartment bulkhead. Removed the top skins to get ready for dimpling. Started installing the nutplates to the removable baggage compartment sidewall. Installed the forward baggage compartment side covers. I put in a bracket for the front end of my fuselage wire run conduit similar. It comes out right behind the forward edge of the non-removable seat skins. Installed the hinges to the bottom seat skins and riveted the seat skins to the fuse.
Installed the forward seat panels and fabricated the tunnel cover that goes between the seats.
Started building the seat backs. It's taking longer than it should because I need a bandsaw blade. Still building seat backs. Finished fabricating and fitting all of the seat back parts and started deburring, dimpling and preparing all of those parts for priming.
Still deburring and preparing parts for priming Deburred and dimpled the top fuselage skins. Started fitting and drilling all the forward cabin covers. This web site and the infomation contained within it are for entertainment purposes only. The opinions expressed on construction techniques are my opinions only and should not be confused with proper construction techniques. There is undoubtedly more than one way to build an airplane and some methods that I use may or may not work in any given circumstance. If there is any question please call the kit manufacturer. I love to help but I am not responsible for the misuse of any information contained on this web site. |