Saturday, November 21, 2020

Riveting the F-706 bulkhead assembly to the aft fuselage - 6 hours

 I decided to fit and rivet the F-706 bulkhead assembly to the aft fuselage before I fit the entire fuse. Reading some of the builders logs, seems that this has worked out well. When I fitted the bulkhead, I noticed that I have a bit of interference on a rib flange with one of the new dimpled holes in the fuselage skin. 

I marked the interference on both sides removed the bulkhead assembly and then trimmed a relief hole with the dremel. Then refitted the assembly. 

Once happy with the fit, I riveted the F-729 bellcrank rib to the aft fuselage. Quick note, avoid riveting the F-728 bellcrank channel to the aft fuse if you can. I riveted it now, only realising I wasn't supposed to (like sooo many other builders). I am not worried though, I have an alligator squeezer that will allow me to rivet the F-728 angle to the rib without removing the rib.

The accessibility for riveting the F-729 rib to the F-707 bulkhead is crazy. I managed to buck the middle hole, but ended up using cherry max rivets for the top and bottom holes. So frustrating.  

Next, I decided to rivet the F-715 seat ribs to the center section. Again reading the build logs, this seems to be a common practice. Accessibility is much easier now. I struggled setting the top most rivets at the F-705 bulkhead. Extremely tricky and poor access. I opted for cherrymax rivets here. (I did try to buck them but did a horrible job). 

 I then riveted the F-715 seat ribs to the bottom skin, which went extremely well.

I now fitted the longerons into the aft fuse assembly.