Last ditch effort to make progress before winter strikes!

OK, last weekend I started the process of deburing, edge cleaning, dimpling, and corrosion protection of the parts in the tail cone.

Located the tail wheel mounts and drilled holes.  Yes, I'm using the one provided by Mustang Aeronautics.  I like it.









Here, I have the bottom pan deburred, dimpled and corrosion protected.  It was at this point I started to have a problem.

On Wednesday I kind of had a wrestling match with the dog.  She wanted the squirrel and I didn't want her to have the squirrel.  A tussle issued and I took a tumble onto my right side.

Thursday and Friday went by and I didn't feel a thing.  Saturday morning I awoke feeling a pain on my right side ribs.  I worked on the plane all day and the pain just kept becoming worst.

So, for the first time in four decades I asked Chris to take me to the ER.

Low oxygen, some torn cartilage between ribs, and muscle strain.  Couldn't be from twisting and turning while working on the MII?  Had to be the dog, right?

Some good drugs and I feel great again.









Started yesterday (Saturday) with deburing and corrosion protecting all the smaller parts in the tail cone.

Here are my rear tail cone skin doublers.

A bulkhead doubler along with the rear attachment strips.













Next, I started to size up the access hole for the right side skin that goes way in the back between bulkheads 187.5 and 205.5.  The access is to be able to get to the rear gear AN8 bolt.

The red sharpie marks are well within the over lapping parts such as bulkheads and lower skin attachment areas.

I started by cutting out paper templates to figure out how big to make the access hatch and hole in the skin.  (Cut paper before hacking up aluminum.)












Once my template was cut and seemed to fit OK, I marked up the skin with a sharpie.  I found the center for my curves and drilled guide holes for my hole saw.









I hole sawed out the curves and that is as far as I have gotten this weekend.  During the week I will work on trimming the remaining aluminum away and clean up the edges of the opening.  Next I will use the hole as a template to mark up some .032 aluminum for a cover and some .040 for the flange.

I think I am going to rivet the flange to the cover and use some #6 screws to secure the cover and flange to the skin.

Later,
BWW