April 25, 2007 - Fuse Bottom Skin

Before mounting the wings, the instructions have you draw sharpie lines from the open holes in the wing rib flange, and mark it three inches away from the hole.  This is so you have a reference point to work back to where you should drill the hole in the fuselage center lower skin.  I marked where the holes should be drilled, then drilled them to #40, then #19 for an eventual #8 screw.  You end up drilling through three layers of aluminum:  the fuse center lower skin, the wing bottom skin, and the wing rib flange.  It all makes sense after you've done it once.
Long ago, I had drilled the holes in the fuse for the fuel tank bracket.  At the time the instructions were vague on when to do this, so I did it.  Now, I'm glad I drilled the holes earlier when it was easy to do it and do it well.  It would be harder to do it now.  After I bent the end of the bracket approximately 5%, the bracket lay perfectly flush against the fuel tank angle.

Not sure how I'm going to drill the hole in the fuel tank angle. 

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