Eye Of The Tiger

I had actually done more yesterday than the blog documented so here is a shot of where I started this morning.

This is all clecoed together for now.

Since painting is done for now it was time to rearrange the shop and raise the paint booth up and out of the way.

Next, it was time to rivet the longerons together.  Though the plans say do this before installation I clecoed them in place so they would be aligned properly, even though they were originally drilled in place.  This is the rearmost splice near the tail cone.  These were Avex rivets which have a looser tolerance than the CherryMax.  There are three splices here.  One on either upper side longeron and the large plate on the bottom.  The teardrop hole on the side is where the rudder cables will exit the fuselage skin.  Tomorrow I have to install the shear clips on the longeron where there are two holes just behind the frame on the right of the picture.  There are clips top and bottom. These should be a lot of fun!

This is the splice more forward.  It uses CherryMax rivets and an two internal splice plates.

And here are the ones at the bottom cargo bay splice.

One of these didn't cinch up he splice plate very well and I had to drill it out.  Drilling out a CherryMAx is a bitch because of the steel stem.  I went oversize with a AD structural rivet.

It is the most forward rivet on the top.  Note there are rivets on the underside of these longeron channels too.

Finally, a shot of Pumpkin, one of the indoor cats and the reason for the label of today's blog.