March 4, 2006 - Baggage Area & Finish Kit Inventory
I still had to rivet parts of the baggage ribs to the F-706 bulkhead.  I should have done this when the fuselage was upside down.  It would have been much easier than having to lean over the side and reach down into the fuselage.  I botched two rivets and spent over an hour removing them.  I couldn't drill them out in the normal way.  Instead, I used the Dremel tool to grind down each side of the rivet, and then drill them out.  But in the end, I got it done. 
It came out fine; it was just harder than it needed to be.  Do yourself a favor and finish riveting the baggage ribs to the F-706 bulkhead BEFORE you flip the canoe. 
This is the forward baggage side cover. 
The is the upper flange.  After looking at the drawings, I realized it needed trimming.  The piece has the little semi-circles showing where to start and end the trim, which makes it easy.  Here I have drawn a red line showing where the trim is to be made. 
Making the trim with the shears. 
The forward and aft baggage side covers clecoed in.  The instructions say to rivet the aft side cover in, but I know from Dan's website not to do it, because the rudder cables need installing first.  (They run behind the baggage side covers).
Then I clecoed in the baggage bottom cover.  I have learned the hard way to cleco everything together before doing anything permanent.  This helps me to understand how everything will go together and what needs to be done.  The baggage area is a little tricky trying to figure out what gets riveted and what gets screwed down into nutplates. 
Back to the Finish Kit.  I took the Canopy and Upper and Lower Cowls out to Essex Skypark and put them in my hangar.  I just don't have room for them at the house. 
 
The engine mount is actually bolted to the bottom of the crate. 
The engine mount and landing gear.  The bar in the middle is a canopy release bar or something like that. 
This is all that's left:  the tires, piano hinge, piano hinge wire, the wing root fairings, and the drawings. 
The inventory took a couple of hours.  No big deal;  nothing like the wing kit or fuselage kit. 

As with the empennage, wing and fuselage kits, everything was there.  Given the hundreds of items, that's pretty amazing.  Vans Aircraft Company is, as we used to say at the Naval Academy, "squared away".

 
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