Fuselage April 2006 Updates
April 02, 2006
Forward Fuselage Structure - 6 hrs

Its a new day. And I feel much better. First I removed the bottom forward floor skin which I ended yesterday by marking the template holes for the main gear. Then I started with the auxilery longerons. Did right side then left. You have to be careful as there are 2 sizes of rivets here. The auxilery are #30 and the 719's are #40. After that I moved onto the 719's. After match drilling them I installed those freakin angle clips I had to remake. I marked the position of the clips and then removed them to drill the 2 #30 rivet holes. I pilot drilled #40 first. Seems to work much better.

Then I resinstalled and used the close quarters drill to drill the hole in the firewall angle. Again starting at #40 then enlarging to #30.

Next I cut the bottom 717 longerons from the 1 x 1.25 stock per the plan length. You have to cut a area from the longeron to give clearance for the landing gear weldment. I drilled a #10 hole to give a nice radious in the corner of the cuts and filed it smooth. Clamped everything in place tight to prepare for drilling thru the steel firewall brace. There are 4 bolt holes that need to be drill here. This is a good stopping point.

Even though the instructions say to cut the landing gear holes now for an "A" model I may wait until its a canoe first. That is what the QB builders have to do and since it looks like you end up having to trim some of the 704 flange away it may be a better way to go. Seems like it would be easier to trim that away with a carbide bit with the skin riveted in place. I will think on it a bit before I reinstall the bottom skin for good.




This website was built to document my work in compliance with the FAA requirements needed to certify my aircraft.
My experiences and comments are by no means to be considered as instructions on how to build any aircraft.