29/01/2022 - Rivetting skirts

 Part 2 of rivetting the canopy. Pulling pop rivets is fun.
Installed the side skirt on the frame and clecoed it in place.

5 minutes later, you got yourself a fixed side skirt. It looks really good.

From the outside, the alignment is perfect and the bottom line sits nice and snug against the side of the fuselage skin. Some UHMW tape will seal it off and make things even thighter.

then installed the top row of screws that attach the canopy to the side skirt using screws and nuts. Didn't put a lot of pressure on these. I didn't find a real torque indication for these so put them hand thight.

Outside view.

and a view from the back.

Finished the passenger side in the same way and also nice alignment here. This thing is ready for some rear skirt construction.

Noticed the gap in the front between the rear end of the top forward skin and the rear skirt. There will be some epoxy work there to close that gap but I'm confident it will work out fine.

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