Category Archives: Fuselage - Page 3

Firewall, spar tunnel, and fuselage bottom

I have pilot drilled and attached the forward fuselage bottom, stainless steel firewall, and the spar tunnel.  The forward fuselage is beginning to feel very solid.

Attaching forward fuselage sides

Started attaching the forward fuselage sides.  I got an Park Tool TW1 torque wrench to help with some of the bolts.  This is a lot easier to use and smaller than my clicker-style wrench and great for these bolts.  I used fishing line (notice the fishing reel hanging off the front left longeron) to check that the longerons are straight and a laser line to double-check.  I believe the next step is to attach the bottom to help further line everything up, but I believe it is pretty close as it rests now.

 

 

 

Turtledeck Rivets

My parents visited this weekend and dad helped me rivet the seat belt attachments, parts of the rear fuselage, and turtle deck.  Earlier in the week I deburred most of the formers and the turtledeck skin.

We spent a lot of time inside the fuselage riveting and positioning formers so the person outside could rivet.

Most of the turtledeck clecos have been replaced with rivets.

 

Turtledeck formers

Mark Spencer and a friend came over and helped me get the formers positioned.  I sat inside the fuselage, pushing and pulling on each former while Mark gave me directions to get the marker line centered in the holes.  They then drilled the holes and clecoed the formers.

Notice all the new silver clecos.  I wish I had a bunch more copper ones now.

 

Turtledeck and forward fuselage

I got really frustrated trying to get this turtledeck former in place so I ended up working on the right side of the forward fuselage for a while.  When I returned to the part I decided to make it again using a smaller form block.  It turns out I cut outside of the cut line and on this part that is enough to make it very hard to fit in place.  The new former fit in place almost effortlessly.  I spent far more time trying to cram the other one in place than the time spent making a new part.  Part of the trouble is accessing the part from inside the fuselage.

Then I began fitting the forward formers.  The first one I made months ago I used the hammer method to make the long bend.  This left the metal somewhat dented so I decided to remake it.  The formers that I made months apart from each other didn’t meet in the middle as nicely as I wanted (the triangle didn’t come to a single point in the middle), so I ended up making another.  So basically I have two perfectly good but unsightly parts in my scrap pile.

There are two gussets that attach at the bottom of these formers.  These require a 30 degree bend.  The first time I tried it, I put the bend in a part I already cut out.  It didn’t bend straight and ruined the part.  For the next two parts, I cut an oversized aluminum rectangle, bent it in my vise, then laid out the part with respect to the bend.  This was much easier.  Notice the part in the vice is just a rectangular blank.

Here are the completed parts.  All the redoing of parts so far is really convincing me to buy the kit for the wings.  On the other hand, I feel like I am starting to really get the hang of making these parts.  If I had to make any of these parts again, they would probably only get better.

Adding turtledeck

Tailwheel mount

Getting everything to fit in the tight spacing at the back of the fuselage has been a little tricky, but I think I finally have everything attached and drilled.

Here is the tailwheel mount that I had to order to get this part of the fuselage finished.  I now realize it would have been extremely difficult building without this part and adding it later.

I temporarily attached the tail for this picture to see how things are coming along and to convince myself there aren’t any glaring faults with the fuselage.

 

Fuel Tank

I needed the welded tail skid mount and decided to order a bunch of other kit items at the same time.  Here’s the 17 gallon fuel tank.  I got curious and weighed it–12.5 lbs.

Rear fuselage parts and turtledeck layout

I decided it is time to get rid of the 4’x12′ sheet of aluminum I have left by converting it into the turtle deck.  It wasn’t nearly as much work as I expected, it’s just a little tedious laying out all the curves and rivet holes.  I am only 90% sure I didn’t make any mistakes though…  In this picture, I have already cut out one side and am tracing it to make the other side.

I started installing the seatbelt attachment parts.

After working on this part over the past couple months, I finally realized I made it an inch too short and had to redo it.  It’s an interesting looking part, so I am hesitant to chop it up.

Caroline helped me flip the fuselage right-side up and move it onto my saw horses.  It doesn’t look much different, but many of the holes have been drilled to the final size and riveted.

While on travel I asked Eric Witherspoon if I could come see his Sonex.  He generously worked me in to his schedule (on very short notice) and even took me up for a nice half-hour flight.  He demonstrated the effectiveness of the standard ailerons and showed me around his local area.  He has a sweet arrangement sharing a T-hangar–I’d like to do something like that, but I’ve heard a rumor that it’s not allowed at my local airport.

Rear fuselage bottom skin

I double-checked all the rivet lines I drew when I first cut out the bottom skin.  I drilled the pilot holes and placed the skin on the fuselage.  Amazingly, it seemed to fit perfectly.  I clecoed it to the fuselage and built my own strap-duplicator tool to drill some tricky holes near the front.

Here is the bottom semi-attached to the fuselage waiting for me to completely convince myself that the whole thing is square (I’m pretty convinced).