Van's
agreed to replace our cracked F-1006B bulkhead. They said it was
very common for the cracks to be repaired, but I expressed a desire to
have it replaced instead. So, we'll have to skip around in the
plans in order to make due until the new bulkhead gets here.
|
(10-8 step 2): With
the left side stiffeners in place I started off the day by clecoing the
side skin on. Just as on the right side the first step was to use
the marks Angela made on the stiffeners to position them for
drilling. I simply positioned the crosshair mark so that it was
visible through the foreward most hole and then clamped the stiffener
in place. Then the first hole on each stiffener was drilled and
clecoed.
|
(10-8 step 6):
It was nice to have Angela back in the shop with me again!
She jumped right on the some of the fabricating tasks. Here she
cut the rudder stop brace out of a piece of .063x3/4x3/4 angle. I
think she may have been a little rusty from all the time off
though. She actually cut it incorrectly the first time
around. Hard to explain the specifics, but the end result was a
piece that couldn't be used because of edge distance issues. So,
we browsed the plans to see if there was another place we could use the
piece. Turns out the piece was just big enough to use for the two
trim bellcrank brackets we'll be cutting in secction 11... whew!
So, she tried again, and this time it came out perfect.
|
(10-8 step 4): Next Angela separated and deburred the rudder stop skin stiffeners.
|
(10-9 steps 3-5): After
that she was on to the bellcrank rib angle. This originally comes
in one piece, but must be separated into four. Then there were
various size holes to drill and some nutplate attachment holes that had
to be countersunk.
|
(10-8 step 3):
After Angela finished her fabricating tasks she decided to pull
up a stool and help me with match drilling the stiffeners. With
two of us doing this it wasn't too bad.
|
(10-8 steps 5 & 7): Now
that the assembly is symmetrical again (both sides are on and match
drilled) the next step is to install the rudder stop skin stiffeners
and the rudder stop brace. The stiffeners were clecoed in first,
and then the plans call for making sure the tailcone is free from
twists prior to match drilling the rudder stop brace. This is
done by placing a level across the front of the assembly, and another
across the rear (visible just in front of my drill in the pic).
When both bubbles are level the rudder stop brace is placed up against
the F-1012 bulkhead and clamped to the rudder stop skin
stiffeners. Once its secured there are 4 holes in the F-1012
bulkhead that are match drilled into the brace. After all these
are drilled, the brace is removed and the holes are deburred.
Then it is reinstalled and the stiffener holes are match drilled into
the brace. These holes are right up against the bulkhead and they
are pretty far down in there so a 12" long drill bit is used. As
you can see in the pic the 12" bit just barely has enough clearance.
|
(10-10 steps 3 & 6): While
I was toying with long drill bits, levels, and clamps, Angela decided
to do some more fabricating. She cut the F-1010B spacer out of a
piece of AS3-125x1.000. After that she began deburring some parts
we'll be needing in the near future such as the F-1011B stop/doubler,
and the F-1014 aft deck (shown here). This piece will become the
top deck of the rear part of the tailcone. The horizontal
stabilizer will mount on top of this deck.
|
| (10-13 step 1): Since
one of the next steps is inserting the F-1006 bulkhead that we don't
have just yet, I started looking for other things to do. So, I
decided to go ahead and make the horizontal stabilizer attachment bar
support angle (say that 3 times real fast!). This is another
angle that will attach to the top of the aft deck. |
Nothing in particular with this pic other than just being
excited about our progress. This is really starting to look like
the tail end of an aircraft fuselage… OUR aircraft
fuselage! Of course pics don't do it justice, but this thing is
over 8 feet long. To put it into perspective, this portion of the
fuselage lies completely behind the passenger compartment, and even
behind the baggage compartment. So, there's a whole bunch more
fuselage to come! Angela & I were looking it over for a while
and trying to picture the remainder of the fuselage attached to the
front of it and how it would fit in the garage... it looks like it'll
be tight! Oh... and we planned to store this thing in the house
once it was done while it waited for the rest of the fuselage... well,
now that its starting to take shape, that looked like it may be in
question also. We took some measurements and sure enough, it
won't fit through any of our doors! Looks like it'll be staying
out here once its done!
|
