Day’s 51-53

These few days have been busy.

Once the side skins for the center fuselage were Cleco’ed on, the vertical spars and back support channels were riveted on, we were able to do the forward support channels. These required a little more work being they had countersunk rivets. So we needed to make sure everything that needed dimpling was correct. Then all of the holes have to be clear drilled because they make the rivete holes just smaller than the rivets because when they get dimpled they stretch slightly.

We were also able to rivet on the outside skin strengthening ribs and plates. These were Cleco’ed and riveted to the vertical spars first to insure their proper alignment, then riveted to the support channels. There are a pair of support channels that riveted on at the same time that support the front seats. We did not rivet these in place at this time because we feel one of them were dimpled on the incorrect side. Until we get that sorted out we won’t rivet them in.

At this time we also riveted the top support channel for the firewall. This way we would insure the front skins were the proper width. Also it allowed easier access to some of the rivets for the angle brackets. We also Cleco’ed in the lower support, but have found a misaligned issue with one of the motor mount brackets and are sending an email to Sling support to ask about that. So we are holding off on riveting that in place for the time being. We did however Cleco in place the rest of the firewall and it’s various components to make sure everything else was going to fit and align properly.