Friday, February 21, 2020

forward fuse




The forward fuselage of my slider is a little tricky.

There is a slight bend in the sub panel near the bottom; without this, the fit is terrible. I marked the bend, used an 18" brake on the outside, and a block of wood clamped to the table for the center section's bend.

.
The center web does not have prepunched holes in either the firewall, nor the web.
There are many ways others have installed this part. Here is what I did:

I first built up the web per the plans. Then I assembled it all together but put the forward skin on one hole back, so I can see to mark the location of the web on the firewall.
 I made the holes in the same vertical location as the outside ribs





















 Then I put the skin on properly, drilled the top hole and clecoed.
I then removed the skin, aligned the rib to vertical, and drilled the remaining holes.

Unfortunately, the center brace is now no longer sitting on the firewall angle, so I will make a spacer. I had aligned the angle to the web based on a center line drawn on the angle. I probably should have drilled the rib to firewall first before drilling the angle to the web.