Fuselage

Earlier today I drove down to Vans to pick up a new F-722 baggage area side stiffener to replace the one I ruined the other day. When I got to the shop this evening, I didn't have a lot of time, but I was ready to drill the holes through the sides of the fuselage into the gear leg brackets, so I went at it.

Here they are, all drilled and clecoed. I'm glad I didn't overlook this! What a drag it would have been to have to drill this after the parts are primed, painted, riveted together, and so on. Not to mention the fuselage will be upright before long, which would have made this even more difficult. These big holes create a ton of shavings and obviously need to be deburred and cleaned up afterwards.

Here's a shot from inside, showing the holes just drilled through the gear leg bracket. A bit of deburring will finish up the bracket nicely.

Now for the forward leg of the bracket. You drill these two holes through from the inside using the bracket holes as a guide. However, only the aft hole can be done at this point because the F-724 bulkhead is in the way for the other hole. So after drilling and clecoing the first hole in place, I removed the F-724 bulkhead.

Now that the F-724 bulkhead is out of the way, the other hole can be easily reached and drilled. I had to repeat all of this for the other side, of course. Now, finally, I think I'm ready to start dismantling this thing.

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