Fuselage

Today I didn't have a lot of time, but I wanted to get going on the elevator bellcrank. I had previously pulled the parts and started work on it. Today, I drilled all the holes in the bellcrank and bearing, then took it apart for deburring, scuffing & cleaning. I also fab'd the little spacer. It's all ready now for priming. I'm going to wait, though, until I have some other parts ready to prime as well.

Well, it's time to finish up these F-695 Corner Gussets. So today I pre-drilled all the holes out first to #40. Then I carefully clamped them in place, checked once more for proper fit, then drilled them #40 to the longerons and firewall stiffeners.

Part way through the drilling process. There are a lot of rivet holes in this piece!

Above, the gusset is drilled to #40 with a cleco in every hole.

Here it is after final drilling to #30 and everything deburred and cleaned up. I'm pleased with how well the fit turned out. I repeated all of this for the left side. Then I pulled the parts for scuffing & cleaning in preparation for priming.

Moving aft a bit, next, the plans call for pulling this F-728 vertical bellcrank rib. The stiffener angle is now riveted to the rib. So I set up the squeezer and squeezed all the rivets in place. I don't know why the plans had you wait to do this. It seems to me it could have been done way back when this part was first put together. But I'm not going to disagree with the plans this time. I see no harm in waiting.

At the top of this rib, I also dimpled the four rivet holes that attach to the F-706 bulkhead. Then I dimpled the F-706 as well. Flush rivets hold this rib to the 706 at the top.

The plans call for riveting this rib in place at this time. However, I'm going to wait a while. I think it will be easier to fit the bellcrank in place with its spacers if this piece is moveable. But the big reason I'm waiting is because when the time comes to rivet the top skins in place, someone (probably ME) will have to squeeze into the aft fuselage to buck rivets. It will be hard enough to get in here and lay down, but much harder if this obstacle is in the way. So after the top skins are riveted on, I'll rivet this baby in place at that time.

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