February 26, 2006 - Aft Upper Fuse
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With the "Rear" Upper Fuse skin clecoed and drilled, it was time to start
working on the "Aft" Upper Fuse skin. First I clecoed in the rib
between the F-706 and F-707 bulkheads as shown here, still covered with
the blue protective plastic. |
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Then I laid the skin over the top.
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It soon became apparent that clecoing the aft and
rear skins together over the F-707 bulkhead was going to be a problem.
They would not stay lined up and I could not get my hand back there to
move the rib or cleco from the inside. So I removed the aft top skin,
clecoed the rear top skin to the F-707, then taped it with wrapping tape –
left my duct tape at Essex, but the wrapping tape worked great. Then I
unclecoed the rear skin, put the aft skin back on, and continued on with
clecoing the aft skin. The tape kept the bulkhead and rear skin holes
aligned perfectly. But I wasn’t able to get the aft skin and F-706
bulkhead holes to align. I realized that the two J-stringers were too
long, even though I had trimmed them. They were butting against the
F-706 bulkhead web and not allowing it to move aft as was needed to align
the holes. Well, there was nothing to do but remove all the clecos,
remove the aft skin, and trim the end of the J-stringers while they were
still on the fuse. I did that, and then the aft top skin clecoed on
fine.
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In inserted the long triangular gusset at the top of the F-706 bulkhead
underneath the skin. Once the aft top skin was all clecoed, I
drilled it to the bulkheads, longeron, gusset and rib.
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| The upper fuselage has that
"porcupine" look. The aft canopy will conform to the curved skin. |
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| Next I removed the clecos on the
RIGHT side per the instructions to drill the F-707B angle to the bulkhead
and rib. It was soon obvious that I needed to do the match-drilling from
the LEFT side with the 12” 1/8” bit. So I removed all the clecos from the
left side, and drilled the little angle piece. |
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The left side of the F-707B angle after drilling. |
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The right side of the F-707B angle. |
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The forward end of the F-787 rib butting against the F-706 bulkhead. |
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At this point the aft and rear top skins were done. I reviewed the
instructions and saw no reasons to keep the skins on. Since they were
2/3 unclecoed already, I just removed the remaining clecos and pulled
everything.
It seems a shame to remove the upper skins but there are still some
things I need to do in the aft fuselage -- run the rudder cables,
wiring, static air tubing -- that will be a lot easier to do with the
upper skins off.
Note: it turns out that I will need the
skins on to fit the baggage bulkheads. Oh well. Don't take
them off like I did!
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