Sunday, February 8, 2009

Section 21 is Now History











Completed Section 21 today. I was hesitant to attach the steps at this time, so I first match drilled and riveted the F-1048 Facet Pump bracket and then installed the six systems block studs with the help of Adam. Then prepared to rivet the step floors into place. At this time I installed and torqued the steps.

When you install the step floors there is one nutplate where the plans telll you to reach thru the lightening hole to position the corner nutplate. THIS IS NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE! What I did was VERY easy and is shown in the pictures. Attach the step floor with a 3/32" cleco thru the corner nutplate rivet hole, support it on blocks and rotate it out of the way around the cleco. Reach in, attach the nutplate to the cleco, position the nutplate and the rotate the step floor around the single cleco back to its normal position. The nutplate did not move, was positioned perfectly and was now able the cleco and rivet the step floor. PAINLESS!

Final step was to deburr and install the F-1207B rear bulkhead. Then installed the snap bushings.

Time - 5 hours Total Fuselage - 80 hours Total Empennage - 108 hours Total Wings (Complete) - 175 hours