It's been a while since I last updated my blog. This is still a pending article I was supposed to write in May.
In the meanwhile it's august and work has been suspended until now.
There have been some changes in life... not for the better so after been shook up for a while, I plan to continue working on the plane from September on.
Here is what is left to document from May.
I rivetted the F-711 bulkhead. It's a very simple process that can be done with the pneumatic squeezer.
Before you start, make sure you put some tape over the bottom most rivets, and the rivets that also hold the F711-F angle. Those rivets will only be set later.
The bottom holes will be used to drill the WD-409 tail spring mount.
Nice rivet heads all over. Difficult to mess this up if you use the squeezer.
and here it is, almost done and ready for matchdrilling the tailcone.
front side shot.
Next I set the AN470 rivet s that hold the bottom F711-A and F711-B together.
The area is too thight here to squeeze so I shot these with the rivet gun by myself. One tiny smiley from the gun. The days I would have felt bad about this are over. Just moving on.
Finally, I had to rivet the F-712 together. This one only has two parts to rivet together.
Clecoed both parts together for a thight fit.
Next rivetted the AN426 flush rivets using the backrivetting technique.
You are right, I had to remove the clecoes again to lay the parts over the backrivet plate...
The rivets are flush here because this is the bulkhead where the lower spar of the vertical stabilisor will be mounted later.
And that concluded the final work of rivetting on the bulkheads.
Next project will be drilling the WD409 tail spring mount to F711 and F712 and then starting the tailcone matchdrilling process.
After the long break, looking forward being able to continue work !