Finished installing the F-713 auxiliary longerons, made the
F-719B clips and installed one of the F-719 stiffeners.
Sept 9, 2002 1.6 hours
I verified that the firewall was positioned correctly in relation to the side skin, that the longerons fit the WD-602 bracket correctly and that the 1/8" rivets in the skin and longerons were still correct and drilled the 770 skin to the firewall.
I started working on the F-713 auxiliary longerons. These were a little perplexing for me as my view of the plans indicated that the 713 overlapped the F-704 bulkhead. But if it did, there would be a gap between the skin and the 713 at this intersection. I jumped to the web and looked at Phil B's web site and found he had the same issue. The F-713 butts against the F-704 and doesn't overlay the 704. Issue resolved but I still couldn't understand that the plans or the manual was telling me to install these this way ????
Sept 10, 2002 2.5 hours
Finished installing the F-713 auxiliary longerons, made the
F-719B clips and installed one of the F-719 stiffeners.
Sept 11, 2002 3.5 hours
Finished installing the F-719 and the F-719B clips.
I cut the F-717 lower longerons to length and cut out the
aft end of the 717. These longerons need to be twisted to fit correctly in
the web of the WD-603 bracket. I also cut out the F-684 brackets.
Spend some time here to make sure that you position the F-684 so that you have
space to install the rivets that will go through the firewall angle brace.
This is a blind spot (the 684's attach to the angle behind the skin) and it is
easy to position the F-684's so that they fit the F-713 correctly while ignoring
the necessary edge distance required for the angle attachments.
I
finished up the F-684's gussets and installed them. (Or at least drilling
through the skin and whichever brace this is. I'll wait until I take the
skin off to drill through the fwf angle.
Next
was clecoing the F-7101 gear attach web. Then the F902 forward
bulkhead. These have a couple of nut-plates installed and a hole enlarged
for the rudder cable. (just noticed that I didn't relieve the flange of
these bulkheads. ) The F-7101 is also drilled to the F-902.
Made the F796B angle and the F796 C&D spacers. All drilled in place and then taken off and put up for safe keeping.
I started messing with the rudder pedals to finish up the evening.
Sept 15, 2002 5.6 hours
I sure spent a lot of time with what looked like a simple thing of putting the rudder and brake pedals together. Sometimes it just takes longer than you thought it would.
Brake
pedals put together.
I
really struggled with setting the angle of these pedals and how to align them to
each other where they would be perfectly aligned. I searched the RV list and
didn't find any definitive answer. Here's what I finally ended up doing. I
decided that the right pedal was the critical pedal as you couldn't
"lay" it back very for and have enough edge distance for the
hole. So I drilled a hole in the right pedal as low as I thought was
acceptable for edge distance. Then I clamped an angle across the
bottom of the frames to start with. I tried to put a piece of angle on the
back side of the pedals to keep them aligned but it hit the frame. I put a
couple pieces of 1 by behind the angle but this didn't really do it for me
either. So, I made sure the frame was level, then used the digital level
to get the same angle on the left pedal. Marked it and drilled it.
The other set was a breeze after I had figured out how I wanted to do it on the
first side.
I
drilled the bolt holes in the nylon bushings and had to stick it in place to see
what it looked like. (Just a note: the holes where the frame go into the
bushings are cut at an angle, one side deeper than the other. If you put
it in backwards, the bushing will push the skin out. No problem, just flip
them over and all is well.)
The
fuselage is still upside down so I rotated the picture 180 degrees to see what
it should look like. ( :
Finished installing the rudder & brake pedals by drilling the nylon bushings to the aux longeron. I set the assembly by measuring 3 inches from the firewall to the nylon bushing. I only added one other set of holes forward by centering the bushing between the first set of holes and drilling the second set. The plans suggest adding multiple configurations of the sets of holes but I'm long legged and assume that I'll need the most forward configuration available.
After getting these set, I installed the center bearing for the pedals so that it aligned with the other set of holes.
Here is the bracket holding the center bushing. You'll notice the bracket
is cut out around the firewall recess.
Sept 21, 2002 4 hours
I installed the floor stiffeners and the framing of the baggage area. Actually, I spent most of the time today making sure that all the necessary holes had been drilled in the center and forward fuselage assembly.
I
also cheated and stuck the leg assembly in place on the left side to make sure
it would fit before I started taking all this stuff apart to de-burr, dimple,
countersink, etc. It fit (:
Sept 25, 2002 2.5 hours
I started the process of disassembling the fuse by removing the bottom skin and the floor stiffeners. I decided that the best way for me to get all this stuff de-burred , dimpled and/or countersunk is to take a piece or a small section off at a time and get it ready to go back own instead of taking it all apart at once.
The
forward bottom skin is dimpled and the floor stiffeners are de-burred. I
think that these need to be countersunk and I quit before getting this done.
Sept 27, 2002 2 hours
Deburring & dimpling.
Sept 28, 2002 5.8 hours
De-burring, dimpling & countersinking. Really is a bummer to take all this apart after the hours that have been spent putting it together the first time. Anyway, both of the side skins are dimpled, the firewall is de-burred, dimpled and countersunk where appropriate.
Oct 5, 2002 4.5 hours
De-burring, dimpling, countersinking / dimpling. Everything forward of the 704 spar is finished and primed. Still need to take the center section apart from the rear section and do a little dimpling.