Category Archives: Mid Fuselage

Time: 4 Hours

I finished up the seat floor mods today by making the two panel doors. I used some .025 sheet, the skins for my wings that got damaged in the shipment way back at the beginning of the wing build. I removed al the substructure parts from the seat floor so that I could lay the floor on the sheet and trace the opening. I then took my time cutting and cleaning up the edges to get a good fit. Once I was happy with the fit I tapped them in place so I could drill the hinge.  

I then grabbed all of the support angles and cleckoed them in place for final drilling.  

 There are 3 support angles that would go across the area that I put the access panels. I needed to cut them down so they would now fit on just the doors.  

   I cut them down and cleaned up all the edges.  

   I debuted all the new holes and cleaned up shop for the night. Not a bad Monday in the Hangar. 

Time: 12 Hours

One of the maintenance mods that I wanted to do involved the seat floors.  The seat floors will get riveted permanently later in the build some builders have made the floors removable by adding a lot of nutplates where rivets would go. I did a lot of researching to decide if I wanted to go that route or not. What I decided was that all that extra work was not worth it for me. What I did decide to do was make to accres panels in the center section of the floors and copy my buddy Glen’s work. The center bay just aft of the passenger foot well is a perfect place to put the com antennas. These bays will and be a good spot to put wire terminal blocks for the wings so that removal of the wings(should that ever be required) will be a little easier when it comes to the wings wiring. I spent several hours just laying out the hole and measuring all the specs so that nothing was going to interfere with other parts. I used Glen’s photos to help give me an idea of how I wanted to lay it out.  In this mod the hinge will sit a little proud of the floor as well as the CamLoc that I will use to secure the door but all of this will be covered with a carpet kit from Flight Line interiors. 

       The rest of the time I carefully measured and cut all the required pieces. I always struggle with this type of work as I have a hard time looking ahead several steps to see potential problems or issues. The only one I ended up having was an edge distance issue with the floor side hinge at both ends as I had forgot to add the 1/4″ lip to my rivet spacing. Not a big deal as the hinge is sandwiched between the floor and a piece of angle. I didn’t take a lot of pictures as I went but here are a few.  

   Over all I really pleased with how the hole and substructure for both sides came out.  

 I decided to stop with that work as all I have to do is make the doors and match drill the support angle holes that would have been there in the first place. I also received my heater valve from Aircraft Spruce on Friday and decided to put it into position. It comes with a heat temp sealant to put around the opening to prevent any leaking.  

       All in all a great weekend in the Hangar even though there wasn’t a whole lot to show for it. I used up all of my 3/4″ thin angle I had ordered from Van’s as I had a few bad cuts and wasted some of it. I will order more since I have anothe rear baggage mod to do as well as the oil can issue on the aft bottom fuselage that needs attention. 

Time: 5 Hours

Yesterday I spent part of the afternoon working in the seat/rear baggage floors. This consisted of a lot of edge deburring on all the parts including then passenger foot wells.  

I also woked the edges of the rear baggage area bulkhead cap. This will close of the agave area from the rest of the tail cone.  

I placed the floors in place so could match drill al the holes.  

 I then grabbed the rear control stick mounting support and placed the two forward bolts in place so I could match drill the aft two bolt.  I then removed the bracket and drilled those new holes for nutplates.  

The last thing I did for the day was to start the work on the flap control arm end blocks. These plastic pieces are used to hold the arm in place but also act as a smooth hinge so the arm can rotate easily. You need to trim the corner a little to allow them to sit tight in the corners.  I have read where some builders have had issues with edge distance while drilling down through the blocks into the ribs below.   I will do a little extra measuring before I do that task. I placed the blocks and the arm in place to see how they looked before calling it a day.  

Another good day in the Hangar! 

Time: 6 Hours

Today I ran to Home Depot to grab a 36″ Dewalt clamp to help spread the fuselage sides apart so I could get the support bar in place. This bar will support the pilots seat back and provide structure to the top of the fuselage sides. When I returned home I used a couple small pieces of wood as spacers and put the clamp in place after reversing the ends so it would be a spreader. This was all so I didn’t scratch the paint as I slid it up into position since it is a tight fit. I had to do a little prying to get it up into position along with the two spacers but didn’t cause any damage to the paint. Once the bar was in place I removed the clamp and returned the ends to the clamp position. I then put the clamp on the upper edge of the sides to now squeeze the skins, longeron and bar all together to get the holes to line up. I first started with the 8 vertical screws and their washer/nuts. I held the Philips head still and tightened the nut so the screw head wouldn’t tear the paint. I then followed those up with the solid rivets. I used several of my pneumatic squeezer yokes to get all but 3 rivets per side. On one rivet I used my small mushroom head in the rivet gun and my small thin bucking bar. The last two rivets are all but impossible to get too with any type of bucking bar and Van’s calls for CS4-4 flush blind rivets. All these turned out perfect and no damage to the paint.

I then put in the 16 AN3-4 bolts that are on the sides. I will say these took me forever to get as the 4 inboard ones are in a tight space and the top outboard ones don’t have a lot of room to run an open end wrench.

   I took time in between the bolts and riveted the hinge to the pilot seat back.

After I finished up the bolts I finished riveting the passenger seat back. It went pretty quick with the rivet gun and tungsten bucking bar. As with the pilot seat back I left the hinge off so I could paint first.

   The bar looks pretty good in place!

 To protect the bar and side rails I bought some packing pad and tape to wrap those areas.

Long day for not a whole lot of items but it was a good day! Next up the seat floors and passenger foot wells.