Fuselage

Sound familiar? Drilling, deburring, and dimpling. I didn't have much time today, but I pulled the F-721A & B from the right side. I bent the little tab on the F-721B, then drilled it to the 721A. Then I took it apart again and deburred everything. Then I dimpled the F-721A. Didn't take any pictures.

I started off today with some countersinking. The forward part of the longeron where the F-721A side rail rests needs to be countersunk for the dimples in the 721A. Once that was finished, I clecoed the 721A & B back in place. I waited until the dimpling and countersinking was finished before doing the final fine filing and smoothing on the outside of the fuse. I used a cleco in every hole and carefully filed the 721A until it matched the curve of the fuse and was very smooth.

Next, I moved on to the forward corner gussets, the F-695's. These are apparently a holdover from the RV-6. They aren't pre-drilled and don't fit exactly right. So you need to carefully measure and mark them for the rivet holes, and carefully fit them and clamp them in place before drilling. One corner needs to be bent a little more to make it fit right.

The rivet holes are laid out above, and it's ready for drilling. I plan on pre-drilling it first to #40, then clamping it in place, then drilling through the #40 holes to #30 through the longerons and firewall stiffeners. One edge needed to be filed down a bit to fit better. You just have to work with this piece until you get it right. It makes you appreciate all the improvements in the kit from the old RV-6 days. A little patience, and it gets done. One telltale indication of how important this is... look at how many rivets there are. This is a thick gusset with a lot of 1/8" rivets. No wonder... it not only holds the corner of the fuse together, but the engine mount is right on the other side of the firewall from this piece. It carries a big load. So I took my time. Don't want to mess around.

Next, I pulled the shoulder belt anchors, clamped them in place and drilled them to the longerons. After deburring, I clecoed them back in place. They're ready now for final priming and riveting. But you don't rivet these on yet. They will interfere with riveting on the top skin. They'll be riveted on after the top skin is riveted in place.

It surprised me that these go way back in the fuselage, just in front of the F-708 bulkhead. But that gives the cable a straight shot to the middle of the seat, from this angle.

Next, I pulled the four little corner gussets that go in place behind the F-706 and F-707 bulkheads.

Like others have done, I will wait before drilling these to the longerons until the top skins are in place, even though the plans say to do it now. You can drill and cleco them to the bulkheads for now. But the bulkhead is flimsy and moves around way too much to know the final position at this point in relation to the longeron. After the top skins are in place, I'll clamp them down and drill them to the longerons.

Finally, I pulled the parts for the elevator bellcrank along with the bearing and started work on the bellcrank. I had previously deburred the parts, so I clecoed them together and marked for a hole that I will drill for the TruTrak servo pushrod for the autopilot.

You can see the small "x" that I marked near the blue ink marks. This is where I'll drill the hole for the TruTrak autopilot.

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