October 11, 2005 - Center Fuselage

With the offending brackets off, I was able to cleco all the ribs to the F-705 bulkhead completely.  The next step was to cleco the bottom skin on.  Cool!  But I was at a loss how to do it because the skin is pretty large and unwieldy.  I checked out Dan Checkoway's page quickly and saw that he just set the thing upside down.  So that's what I did. 

The center fuselage assembly with the bottom skin resting upon it.  The first cleco is in place!

 

Lynnette made a rare appearance in the basement and I showed her the assembly.  She immediately said that's not going to fit out the window.  You have to remember I'm building this plane in my basement.  The first question everyone asks -- and in fact was the first question I asked when getting serious about this project -- is how will it get out of the basement?  Our basement has a 4 x 4 1/2 foot window.  I checked the preview plans and it looked like there was plenty of room to get the fuselage through the window.  The bottom skin does look very wide.  So I rechecked the measurements.  The window is 48 inches wide and the bottom skin is 46 1/2 inches wide.  It's going to be tight but should be able to make it.