Cutaway View

Took this a few days ago. It's in a few more pieces now.

DJ

Ready to come apart

Well, I got everything clecoed together using all of my clecos and drilled everything that needed drilled. Now it all has to come apart.

Since the pictures were taken, I have taken the forward bottom skin off and prepared it for riveting.
I've got a bunch of deburing, dimpling, and countersinking ahead of me.

DJ

Rudder Pedals

I got the rudder pedals trial fit. Well, almost, still have to put in the center brace.

DJ

Slowly Making Progress

Well, I haven't made a lot of visible progress since my last post back in April, but I've had a really busy summer and have just recently gotten back to work on my airplane.

You can see I have added the firewall.

And most of the structure under the main longeron.

DJ

Making Progress

With my school almost done, I am making progress at a faster rate.

I have joined the center section with the tailcone.

Here I am rolling the conical bend in the side skin.

And the side skins are on!

Looking from front to back.

 

Just a few more pictures of the fuselage.

 

Here is a picture showing the conical bend.

DJ

Back to Work

Well, we finally got the longerons cut, curved, bent, notched, and twisted. I also did a few things on the center section and the tailcone to prepare them to be attached to one another.

Bending the longerons was basically whacking the longeron with a four-pound mallet. Then you would compare it to the template then whack it some more. Kind of a tedious process. 

This is how I cut the longerons. I clamped a piece of scrap on the longeron to use as a guide for the hacksaw. I didn't want to use any power tools on this.

Here I was drilling the canopy deck to the longeron.

 

 

This how we applied the sharp downward bend and twist.

The complete longerons.

 

The next order of business will be (temporarily) attaching the tailcone to the fuselage and working on the forward fuselage. 

DJ

More Center Section Work.

Well, kind of. Dad and I got the bottom skin riveted onto the center section.  It's about time to bend the longerons, something I've put off until now. After that is done I will fit it to the tailcone.

For those of you who are not aircraft builders, this is where you will sit. It is also where the wings attach.