CHAPTER 45 - Odd Jobs II

After riveting the bottom skins there are a lot of things you can and/or must do. I started out by installing the bushings for the rudder cables and trim tab cable. While I was under there, I couldn't resist snappin a picture.

Next, the false spar will need to go back on for support while the fuselage is right side up, and the gear mounts can be reinstalled and the fuselage holes finished now that the wings are out of the way. In the second picture you can see that I've trimmed the false spar to fit better and roughly reattached the landing gear mounts. After I took this shot, I drilled the remaining mount holes in the fuselage side, countersunk where appropriate, and installed the bolts.

Next I called up some friends and, while I waited, moved the jig to one side and removed all the clamps so that the fuselage was just resting on the jig. Next, I set up two pair of sawhorses with 2x4s taken from the jig crossmembers. When my friends showed up, we lifted the fuselage off the jig and set it on the 2x4s as the next picture shows. The supports are under bulkheads and shimmed to keep the fuselage from twisting and the longerons level. There is another sawhorse at the rear that will be used when the aft structure is done, to keep the tail in position and square.

Now I can take care of some little jobs. The next three photos show the installation of gussets for two of the fuselage bulkheads as well as the installation of the seat belt anchors. Then there's a picture of the installation of the F605 gussets. The lateral gussets for the longerons at the firewall were also fitted at this time. Next, I ran the routing of the trim tab cable through the bulkheads before it got to difficult to get in there due to floor skins and the aft skins. The picture shows it snaking along the left side of the fuselage.

After that, I had a bunch of small parts ready to be installed. I primed them, along with the steps. The photo after the primed parts finally shows that forward gusset clecoed into place. I also clecoed the other parts back in preparation for riveting, including the steps. I also ran the rudder cables through and made the hole for the fairleads in the fuselage side. My hardware didn't match the plan callouts, but a call to Van's showed me what they had substitued and the photo show the fairlead clamped in place. One thing I noticed doing all this was that all my metal shaving were now collecting in the fuselage, so I've had to resort to using a shop vacumn with increasing frequency. Anyway, I also assembled the rudder pedals and roughly positioned them, though I can't finalize them until I can actually sit in the plane.

You may notice in that last photo that the fuselage gusset is missing some rivets; I had been squeezing them for the small parts and there were some I just could not reach with the squeezer. The next photo shows a step riveted in place; this was done with the gun, and I did the bucking by lying on a plywood 'floor' while Judith stood outside and did the riveting. I took the opportunity to finish rivets I had been unable to squeeze. Then Judi took the opportunity to take a picture of me sitting in the plane (at last!). It had just started snowing and she couldn't resist opening the garage door despite the cold and getting a picture of me hangar flying into what looks like developing IMC conditions! I was concerned about visibility over the cowling until I realized I would eventually have a seat under me; here I'm sitting almost directly on the ribs.