1st Weekend Of March

 As I progress on the plane, I find I have made a lot of headway by building some parts very early in the project.  This weekend I spent time going back through and completing some of the parts.

I cut and drilled the tail cone bottom skin stiffeners last summer.  They were tucked away in the overhead waiting to be completed.  So, I located and matched drilled them to the bottom skins.  Next, I deburred, dimpled, and corrosion protected.

I also corrosion protected the bottom seam between the two skins and Clecoed it all up for riveting.  Looks pretty good.

Very early in the construction of the center section (CS), I drilled the holes for rivets to attach the flap hinge and flap hinge reinforcement.

Kind of scary to do at the time.  I had to butcher the reinforcement plate to fit over the landing gear mounting bolts, seatbelt bolts and other stuff that protrudes from the CS rear spar.




Today, I completed the parts by, you know.....deburing, dimpling, and corrosion protection.

I have a lot of parts I have made that just need to be added to the main project as I go along.  Some I have just forgotten about and need to get them in place prior to final riveting.

I ordered some Cheery-Max rivets to rivet the flap reinforcement to the CS rear spar.  I will use some flush (426AD3-??) rivets for the hinge, reinforcement, to CS bottom skin.  The Main Squeeze will work great here.

Once I have the flap hinge reinforcement in place I can work at getting the rear baggage floor in place.  It is nearly ready to go.

I just have to match drill to 1/8th inch rivets in some places and then debur, some dimples, and corrosion protection.

When that is complete I should be really ready to drive some rivets before finishing the tail cone.

I still have a lot of parts all over the garage.  Some boxes are emptied and tossed to make room.  But, the more room I make the more room the plane takes up.

Hopefully, it will warm up enough to open the garage doors and do a spring clean.  I have a lot of chips on the floor that need to be swept up as well as other debris to toss.

Sooner or later the plane (aka Alice II) will end up at a hanger at ENW for final construction.  I just need to keep plugging along to completion.

Later,
Brian