Preparing the aft top skin structure - 2 hours

 Since it was such a nice day out, I wanted to pull the plane out onto the driveway. I’ve been wanting to do that for a very long time. I think at this point is doesn't quite look like a much of a plane yet, but I think it’s cool

Today I choose to start prepping the aft top skin structure. All of the bulkheads where de-burred and primer was touched up. 

Installing the WD-721 gear wedments - 6 hours

 Well don't be fooled..Getting the WD-721 gear weldments installed is not the easiest process for a number of reasons. A while back, I took extra time to make sure the gear weldments fit the spar and all bolt heads before the spar was riveted into the fuse. This involved opening some of the bolt holes very slightly to get everything to fit. Boy I was glad I did that then, because doing it now would be an insane pain in the butt. 

The next hurdle is getting the actual weldments into the fuse. The nutplates on the forward spar interfere and need to be removed. The gear leg holes in the bottom skin are just a tad too tight on my project so I needed to open them up slightly.

 Next fit hurdle is the fit of the downward leg on the weldment. Lots of build logs talk about how theirs interfere with the floor stiffener. Fortunately I don't have an issue with this as others do, however in order to get the welment into place you do need to get the flange slipped behind the floor stiffener. 

It does take a little effort to get the weldment in under the forward flange of the spar. You have to lift on the spar flange a little bit

Now that the weldment is in....comes the most annoying part. The weldment interferes with one of the lower rivets on the side of the fuse. I anticipated the interference when I initially fit the weldments prior to fuse assembly...I did make some notches in the weldments, but apparently not enough.

So out the weldments come....for the hundredth time. And I have to open the notches a bit more. 

 After some work with the files...I have the notches set and the weldments fit tight to the spar. 

 

The weldments are fit....but not entirely bolted to the spar yet. That involves another work session and frankly...I just don't want to look at these again for a while.

 

Misc. work and drilling the gear legs - 5 hours

 Today I works a little bit on a number of things. I checked the fit of the new fuel selector and everything is exactly as my other fuel selector. I installed new nutplates in the selector. Also, rather than using locktite on the selector fittings, I stagged (or punched) the screw heads as per the selector instructions. 

I managed to finish up the few pesky rivets in the F-721B canopy deck. Right where the F-704 bulkhead meets the canopy deck access to some rivets is interesting. I managed to slide the narrow bucking bar above the F-704 uprights (in the aft canopy deck "channel") and used a second tungsten bucking bar below the narrow bar to buck the rivet. It actually turned out really well. 

Since I am on a roll with riveting, I set the six rivets (3 per side) in the arm rest/F-705. 

 

Next...I am on to the gear legs. I want to get working on all the interior center cover area and I think by installing the gear leg weldments will give me something to support myself when I reach over and into the forward cabin. It becomes important to drill these now for the gear leg attachment bolt. Setting up on the work bench, I installed the legs into the weldments and drilled the hole with my 0.311" reamer.

Don't let this description fool you....It took a lot of time to get the weldments cleaned up enough to allow the legs to go in. Also, it was very stressful to get the bolt hole aligned properly enough to drill. 

New parts and tools arrive - 1.5 hours

 Today a new fuel selector from Vans arrived, as well as a new thin tungsten bucking bar from Amazon. The fuel selector I had just isn't going to work in the tight space I have so I purchased the proper fuel selector from Vans that have the integral -6 flared fittings (#FS 20X7T).

 I needed a thin bucking bar to get the forward rivets in the F-721B aft canopy deck. Searching around Amazon had a 0.38"x0.75"x6" tungsten bucking bar from Midwest Tungsten service. It turns out that this bar is the perfect size to get into the aft canopy deck area. I taped on some Popsicle sticks to help get the bar to clear the longeron, and then I could easily set most of the forward rivets. There's just a couple pesky ones I need to set.

 

Made the fuselage mobile cart - 6 hours

 I want to get the fuselage on a mobile cart so I can move the fuse out of the garage this summer. Give me room to work and also the ability to clean and sweep the floors around the fuse.

Off to home depot I went anf bought the wood and locking casters I needed. Wow it was expensive. 7/16" OSB was $60/sheet and a 10' 2x4" was $15/each). Ouch. Well I spent the day working on its and then painted it. 

Flap system and tunnel cover work - 6 hours

 I need to re-do the F-785A backrest brace. Originally I had drilled it for the stock RV backrest, but then after installing the Almost an RV14 mod the holes are not the same. I'm sure I could leave it as-is and carry on but it bothers me to leave it like this. 

So, I ordered a new piece and began the fitup process again, but this time with the holes for the almost a 14 mod only. 

 After the backrest brace is all set-up and redrilled. The fit for the seat mod is turning out extremely well. I do have to mess a bit with bending the tabs on the stainless backrest crossbar to tweek the fit, but in the end a have an install I am really happy with. 

 

Now I'm ready to finish the tunnel cover. With the flap assembly complete, I've focused a bit on the final fit of the F-741A z-channels. There is a bit of interference between the rivets on the flap channel and the z-channel. I will have to remove some material so that these parts do not rub.

Next I need to fit and drill the F-741B cover to the z-channels. However I notice that the width of the cover as called for in the plans (2 3/4") is not enough to fully span the width of the tunnel cover. Looks like I am short about 1/8" on both sides. 

So..what to do. 3 options..1 - Leave it, 2 - Make new F-741A z-channels, 3 - Make a wider F-741B cover.  Ultimately since I have spare lengths of z-channel I went with option #2 and I have everything re-cut after about an hour worth of work. I started drilling the new holes for the #8 holes and drilled one too large with a 1/4" bit. Just not paying attention. So annoying. So I scrapped Option 2 and went with Option 3. I just made a wider F-741B tunnel cover. Hopefully this works and won't be rubbing on the seat. All else fails I can always make a new tunnel cover if ever needed.

 

 

 

Installed the F-721B Aft Canopy Deck and misc. cabin riveting - 3 hours

I am now ready to start riveting on the F-721B canopy deck (side rails). The question I have is do I also want to install the F-721A fwd canopy deck. From my research it seems that a few builders have chosen to install the both canopy decks at the same time, some don't. I reached out to a local builder who just finished his RV7A (Tracy Trathern). He indicated that I need to drill and fit some of the panel angles to the front canopy and there was still yet some riveting to that front deck. I followed his advice and will hold off on riveting the forward canopy deck. 

I started riveting the aft canopy deck. Working from the center out. 

 

I cannot rivet too far forward since space is extremely tight between the canopy deck and longeron. My bucking bars are just too thick.  I will have to figure something out to finish these off. Next, I installed the seat belt anchor cable guides in the baggage bulkhead.