I believe Section 29 encompassed some 80+ hours of work. 40 of which were with help. There are a lot of rivets, which in itself isn't an issue, however many of the rivets are in hard-to-access places and in many cases bolts and other things need to be removed and later reattached. A few rivet lengths in the plans were too short. Always keep the rivet gauge handy.
The side skins get cleco'd on with the longerons. At this stage, my aft empennage is just in the way. I later turned it around to reduce its footprint.
Riveting progresses. This marked the first time that the fuselage was "sat" in. Below is the momentous occasion which happened to be captured by my time lapse camera setup. That's my friend hopping in. I have yet to sit in it.
Something interesting happened that didn't become apparent until after-the-fact: From this point on, we began referring to the build as "the plane". For example, my friend now got "in and out of the plane" and we had to "move the plane around" to rivet, etc. It was an interesting, purely psychological, maturation of the build.
Something interesting happened that didn't become apparent until after-the-fact: From this point on, we began referring to the build as "the plane". For example, my friend now got "in and out of the plane" and we had to "move the plane around" to rivet, etc. It was an interesting, purely psychological, maturation of the build.
This is prior to the center section channel, arm rests, roll bar base and associated gussets being installed.
I decided to paint the seat back brace red as I had paint left over from painting my rudder pedals. It looks better when viewed from above.
Section 29 is done! Well, except for one rivet holding a nutplate on the upper root faring attach angle.
Sometimes a little creativity helps you buck rivets. Below is riveting the outboard-most AN470AD3-3.5 rivet joining F-01460-L intercostal to F-01422-L side rib. Here we used a heavy bucking bar with hole drilled in to it to accept a standard rivet set. With the gun holding a back-rivet set, hitting the rivet from below, the rivet was bucked.
Another point worthy of sharing is that I had neglected to chamfer the F-01461A-L/R roll bar angles (page 29-11, shown below left). So when the seat back brace was placed (shown on above left picture), I couldn't get the 1/4" holes to line up (bottom right). After wasting much time diagnosing this self-induced problem, a phone call to another builder exposed my oversight. A quick application of a file fixed the issue. I seem to never miss an opportunity to be humbled.
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