Fuselage: Fuselage kit ordered.

I sent in my order for the fuselage kit today.  I don't have the space to complete it currently (wings are in the living room, aft fuselage is on the couch, vertical stab is in the guest room and elevators, rudder and horizontal stab are in the basement).  However, I expect to be in a new hangar house early next year that will better support the build.  Having the kit before then will allow me to prep and prime many parts, saving me time.

Images below from Van's.  I think this is the room behind the sign "Absolutely no admittance" that you see when looking into the Van's airplane hangar.

Empennage: Aft fuselage. Side skins cleco'd on.

With the aft deck in place, I cleco'd in the side skins.  As usual, space is at a premium for me.  The height of the aft empennage is 36 inches.  My front door has a width of 35 inches with the door off the hinges.  So if I tilt the aft fuse on its side with the side skins, it could be extracted from my hangar house since the former is slightly compressible with the top skin off.  I'll test this hypothesis before I rivet the side skins in place.  Otherwise, I'll finish riveting the side skins in the garage and hoist the assembly up to the rafters for storage (which is admittedly better than the couch).

Empennage: Aft fuselage. Aft deck.

Be mindful of the rivet lengths called out for in the plans here.  Many are not correct.  A rivet sizer is valuable.

I was able to squeeze more of the rivets here among three different yokes:  1) 3", 2) longeron and 3) 4" deep no-hole.  The remaining rivets (most the ones aft of the horizontal stab attach support angle) were bucked.  The ones in the corners at the bulkheads were extremely difficult to do.  I don't have any suggestions yet other than to be mindful of your bucking bar so it doesn't slip and wreak havoc.

Working in the living room wastes a lot of time:  I keep going up-and-down the stairs to obtain and return tools!

Here is the aft deck fully riveted except for one AD470AD3 and the pesky corner rivets called out in red in the plans shot below.  That lone AN470AD3 rivet just aft of the stab attach bars should not be a length -4 as called out for, but a length -5 (the material thickness is about 0.160" so with 1.5x protruding prior to bucking, the length should be 0.301 which is a -4.81 size rivet, or a -5).

 

I'm still mulling over how to buck those corner rivets.  I managed to buck two of them with reasonable results.  One of them clenched over and another I didn't try.  So I'll probably drill out the clenched rivet and try again.  Once I research some different bucking bar shapes, I'll post on how I ultimately managed these guys.

That took me, working solo, 5.25 hours.  And I forgot to rivet in the nutplates on the longerons, so now I'll have to buck those rather than squeeze them.  D'oh!  In the end, I think it's easier with the nutplates off anyway, since bucking bar access is easier without them.

Below are the results of removing the rightmost deck angle (F-1412C) rivet.  As always, I start the process with my punch, then I drill a #52 through the shaft.  Then a #42 through most of it, but not all.  Then, with a lot of pressure, I drill the head with a #33 to twist it off.  Then I used my #40 punch to drive the rivet out.  You can see why I wanted this rivet out (left).  Then I was concerned when my #52 hole seemed so off-center (center) but after removal, it was clear my drilling was spot on (right).

Empennage: Aft fuselage. Riveting bellcrank to bulkhead.

As previously mentioned, the plans neglect to instruct you to rivet the bellcrank ribs to the forward bulkhead.  I didn't realize this until after the bottom skins were on the bellcrank ribs.  Too bad, because it would have been easy to do prior to then.  I was able to squeeze the middle rivet and buck the top rivet.  But the bottom rivet would require a double offset set which is akin to taking your life in your hands (see next paragraph).  So I used an LP4-3 on the left side.  Problem solved.

This is what happens when you use a double offset set in an awkward position.  I tried this on the right side (the view is looking forward from the right aft).  This rivet will need to be removed and replaced with an LP4-3. 

Here's what that looks like after removal.  Yuck.  I had to get a 12" #52 bit to use in conjunction with my 12" #40 and #30 bits.  You can see I wasn't centered on the manufactured head, but I didn't do much damage to the bulkhead hole as I went very shallow into the head.

For perspective, the rivet of interest is circled in red below.

Empennage: Aft fuselage. Static plumbing installed.

Installing the static plumbing is fairly easy.  One challenge was removing the mandrels from the AD-42-BSLF blind rivets (which serve as the static ports).  I ultimately used a #52 drill to drive them out after failing with a punch.

Don't push too hard on the F plastic tee.  You'll break it.  $0.80 replacement from Van's (couldn't source it locally).

I used a longer length than the plans call out for the static line tee upsizer.  Don't worry, I later cut the top straight.

Left side sealed in.

Right side sealed in.

Easily tested by blowing in the distal tube and feeling for air coming out of the ports.

As an aside, some folks choose to install a more robust static line setup, an example of which can be found here.