A Little Behind Schedule

Didn't make the goal of full dis-assembly of the front section by tonight but still made a lot of progress.

The biggest slow down is drilling out the shear clips.  There were three places on the aft section that had them and there are two on the front.

These have to be drilled #40 then to #19 and it is tight quarters.  We had to nearly remove the side skins to get an angle drill in there.

Other than that it was just routine sizing things and removing some floor skins and frames.

Also got to the front diagonal fitting on one side.

Had a little concern about the seatbelt attachment bracket.  It seemed to have too much gap between it and the skin.

Its hard to see but notice there is a black gap at the reflection of itself.  It measure 0.040-0.050 inch.  I thought I might have to make a shim.  Fortunately when I clecoed it p the gap was gone without sucking in the skin noticeably.

This should be fine.

Had a good crew for the weekend.  Don was around all day Saturday and Myron hung in there both days and enjoyed Bleriot's company too.  Blood free I might add.

We also solved the dilemma of the wobbly drill bits.  More on that later in the week.

Coming Down

Started coming down with the forward section.  First off was to drill out all of the temporary rivets in the skins.

All holes are to size now.

Then it is time to remove the top rail caps and cargo tunnel skins.

The picture above shows one of the machined fittings where the front diagonal will go.  This same bulkhead secures the bracket for the front seat belt.

This also exposed some holes previously hidden but we prevailed.  Unfortunately I broke my only 12 inch #40 drill bit.  It comes in handy in those hard to reach places.

Instead of a shot of Bleriot, tonight you are treated to a picture of one of our lovely Aracana hens.  They lay blue eggs.

The chicken is the one on the left in the photo.

Oops!

Remember last time how proud I was to have the perfect fitting tail section inspection cover.  Well things went a little south.  While drilling the doubler for the anchor nuts something was out of sequence.

Here is the doubler with the anchor nuts in position ready to be back drilled

The trick is you have to remember to remove the cover plate before you drill.  Here is a perfectly fitted cover plate with 18 extra #40 holes.

At least it was a cheap part.

Continuing on we have a few odds and ends to drill out.  Here is a bulkhead.

Plus this bulkhead gets a 20 more holes on final assembly.

As always, Bleriot watches patiently.

On track to start the final assault on the front section this weekend.  Should be done by end of the month.  Time to order the primer!!

Aft Section Disassembled

Had been dreading finishing the aft section, mainly because it involves forming the inspection cover doubler and cover plate to conform with the curve in the last section.

I was able to get a very nice fit by using a set of rollers that I have.

I then attach some nut plates and drilled out the attachment holes  This was another place where the plans  show using Rivnuts.

There was a flaw in this concept though.  More on that tomorrow.

Meantime, we took the aft section completely apart.

That's Don holding the last bit before removing the last few Clecos.  Myron is on the left.  Myron's birthday is Valentine's day.  We all sat around and deburred stuff all afternoon.

On Sunday, I had a few visitors fly in.  Tmac and Earl stopped in first.  Then Monte wanted to move his recently completed Aeronca Champ to my place from Goldsboro.  He drove over and Glen Garner and his son Glen dropped in with his Champ  as well as Johnny Jackson in his Super Cub on Steroids.

Finally Monte got back with his Champ.

It will be staying at Hood field for a while.

Wet Weekend

Saturday it rained all day and so Hood Field was soaked

Which makes for a busy building day.  We progressed to taking some stuff apart

The plans show doing the doubler that holds the longerons together later.  I didn't like the looseness that had developed in the joint at the temporary rivets so we put it back together to maintain alignment.  Also there were suppsed to be some pre-drilled holes here that weren't.

o with the skins back on I could drill the holes to their final size.

Now it was time to move to the tail.  This bulkhead is where the front spar of the vertical fine attaches.

Now drilled out you can see it gets about as many fasteners as the landing gear.

Another longeron splice near the tail

All of these holes have to be sized now.

Here what the front of the aft section looks like now with a lot of stuff removed.

All done under the watchful eyes of Bleriot.

Coming down with the aft fuselage

Decided to go ahead with locating the vertical fin fairing.

Next I had to locate and drill some more shear clips toward the back.  This went fairly easy, even the ones below the longerons.

Now to remove the cargo bay skins and install the access doors.  They don't lay perfectly flat and so I'll have to tweak them a little.

Here is the cargo bay without the skins.  It is time to drill out the stiffeners.

Stiffeners drilled and removed.

And now the first three bulkheads come out.

All this stuff needs to be deburred now.  What joy!!