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July 28 - 30, 2006:
(8 hrs.)
Last weekend I attended my first Airventure at Oshkosh. It was awesome and lived up to all my expectations. When I returned home, I was even more motivated to get back to the project. I used my hand squeezer to rivet the forward firewall gussets into place. I could reach all but the forward two rivets. For those two rivets I used my pneumatic gun and bucking bar. |
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Next I hand squeezed the gussets that are used to stiffen the F-706 and F-707 bulkheads. |
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This vertical stiffener rib was riveted into place. After I installed it, I read the directions and noticed that there where a couple of rivets I should not have set, so I promptly drilled those out. On the forward end, the lower rivet should not be set if you are building a sliding canopy. Also, on the aft end of the stiffener should not be attached to the F-707 bulkhead until one of the skin rivets is set, otherwise there would be no bucking access for that rivet. |
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Riveted the forward canopy decks into place. The spot where I have the #40 cleco still in place had not bucking access. I ended up putting a blind flush rivet in there. |
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I carried on with some miscellaneous tasks. There are two spots on the bottom of the F-706 bulkhead where a single leg nut-plate is required because the aileron bell-crank rib and housing are in the way. However, the pre-punched hole for the nut plate is too close to the adjoining assemblies for the nut-plate to fit properly. To make things fit, I used my Scotchbrite wheel to grind a flat on one side of the nut-plate... Problem solved. |
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Here is the the ground down nut-plate cleco'd into place. |
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Used my hand squeezer to install all the nut-plates on the F-706 bulkhead. These nut-plates provide attach points for securing the rear baggage compartment access panel. |
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Next, I riveted the steps into place using flush head solid rivets. There were a couple of rivets that where close enough to the weld bead that I could not use my flush mount rivet set. I ended up using my back riveting set (pictured) on the manufactured head to set these rivets. It worked out great. |
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I put some blue RTV around the inside of the fuselage skin where the step enters the baggage compartment. This is probably not necessary, but there was a small spot on the underside of the fuselage where stuff (e.g. water, insects, etc) might be inclined to enter. |
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Installed the aft lower baggage compartment sides. Following suite with the rest of the baggage compartment interior, I used flush mounting techniques. |
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Drilled, cut, and installed these blocks on the the back side of the aft baggage compartment access panel. This is where the cable for the seat belt shoulder harness will pass through the baggage compartment access panel. |
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Here is a shot of the baggage compartment rear access panel installed. |
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Next, I stripped the blue film from the rivet lines of the aft top skins. I then deburred and dimpled the rivet holes. Like always, I also deburred the skin edges. A hand seemer was used on the edges where the skins will overlap other skin panels |
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The insides of the aft top skins were primed along the rivet lines. |
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Aft top skins cleco'd into place and ready for riveting. |
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A picture from another angle. |