Today, I got some help from my son Luke to flip the center section back over upside down and set it on the floor. The plans call for 4 specific holes in the skin to be countersunk instead of dimpled, and the assembly needed to be flipped over again in order to do this, since I missed it when I was drilling the skin to the ribs and bulkheads. So those 4 holes were countersunk, and we lifted the assembly upright onto the workbench again.
Next, it looks like the F-623 corner ribs apparently need to be trimmed to length on the aft ends. The plans and drawings aren't real clear on this, but I finally figured it out. When the center section is mated to the aft fuselage, all the baggage area ribs butt up against the F-706 bulkhead. The F-706 is flat all across the front, so I laid a straightedge across the ends of the baggage ribs and extended it over to the F-623's to mark where they have to be cut. I had been wondering why you make these attach straps, when the end of the rib was long enough to lap up onto the bulkhead's flange where it could be riveted in place. But it's not meant to lap up over the flange. That lifts the end up a small amount, which would result in the bottom skin not being smooth against the rib when riveted in place. I'll have pictures of all of this soon.
Finally tonight, I fluted one of the F-715 seat ribs. These two ribs are on the outermost left and right sides of the cabin, and are not pre-punched. They curve to fit the profile of that part of the plane, so the fluting was done to match the curvature needed. I'll show you a picture of this, too. Soon.
January 22, 2009
Small Attach Straps - 1.5 Hrs.
Tonight I spent what little time I had working on the little attach straps for the F-623 corner ribs. They apparently don't come in the inventory with the kit, but I have plenty of extra aluminum sheet supplied to cut and make them from scratch. I finished drilling them in place, and then deburring. I'm not happy, though. If you make them to the specs in the plans, you don't have much edge distance on the end rivets on the aft end straps. I'll get some pictures soon so you can see what I mean. The bottom line is, I may have to make these over.
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