Joined Center and Aft Fuselage

I've joined the center and aft fuselage. Looks a lot like a canoe now that it's upside down. I think that's what I'll tell people I'm building if they don't already know and drop by the garage to ask. It's getting quite long and I had to scoot the sawhorses back away from the garage door to get it to fit. The picture doesn't show it because the "blue" side skin is curved inward but the new "blue" skin is the same length as the silver side skin.

Everything went together easily after I got some help from good neighbor Tim flipping the center section. It's the structural heart of the aircraft and was too heavy to handle by myself. I'm still amazed at the accuracy of the kit and how well the pre-punched holes line up.

Finishing Center Fuselage

I'm almost finished with this phase of the center fuselage. There's obviously more work to be done but the instructions have you finishing the shell of the center fuselage and joining it to the aft fuselage. With the center floor skins temporarily fastened, the structure is very rigid. Hopefully, I'll be building and installing the seats and control stick and other important items like that at some point in the future.

RV Airshow

Not build related but I just had to post this beautiful picture of RVs. They're are several groups that perform at airshows. This is two flights of four caught passing relatively close during their maneuvering. I'm sure the focal length of the camera makes it look closer than it really is.

Finishing Riveting the Center Fuselage Bottom Skin

I've just about finished riveting the bottom skin of the center fuselage. Paula was nice enough to buck some rivets as the ones in the middle were hard to reach. The skin is so big that my c-frame riveter couldn't reach about 26 or so center holes and I had to use my pop rivet dimpler. Just a little more work and they look fine but I thought it would reach every hole in every skin. Guess not. Here are few hints for the seatbelt attach brackets. Trim them like shown in the plans because they will interfere with the ribs and cause a bad fit. Also, don't final torque (and put torque seal like I did) until after riveting the bottom skin. The bolts interfere with riveting and they have to be removed.

Installing Crotch Strap

Paula asked what I was taking a picture of this morning. I told her I was doing an Anthony Weiner and taking a picture of my crotch strap and posting it online. She quickly said, "that didn't work out too well for him". She's funny!

I decided to install the crotch strap hardware while the floor was apart before riveting and was surprised that the holes had already been cut. The crotch strap is an option that makes the harness into a more secure 5-point so it's nice of Van's to send modified parts based on the options you order.

Finished Match Drilling Center Fuselage

I've finished match drilling all the center fuselage. Now it's time to prep the parts for riveting. In the picture below, you can see the spacers I used to get the proper distance on the main spar bulkhead where the wings fit. They're blocks of oak with paper shims. Plans call for 1.438" and I'm showing 1.439" on the micrometer (thanks Steve and Peggy). I tightened the nut that goes through the oak block and bulkhead parts just a smidgen (official aviation term) to close the gap by one thousandths of an inch. Van's does such a good job on the matched hole manufacturing that the holes in the skin and bulkhead flange aligned perfectly when the spacing was correct. I just had to run a drill through the holes to bring them up to the right size.