RIVETING THE AFT DECK
As I alluded to up above, it is time to rivet in the aft deck on the tailcone. It really felt good to put in even just a few hours today after getting back from Oshkosh. I have also had a few side projects come up along the way, but more on that later. The aft deck really is as it is described. A flat deck in the rear part of the tailcone that will serve as a mounting point for the rudder, horizontal stabilizer, and all of those various parts and pieces. This section was pretty straightforward. I was able to use the squeezer for many of the rivets along the way. The ones that I couldn’t reach with the squeezer yoke were easy enough to bang out with the gun and bucking bar. No sweat.
RIVETING MORE SKINS
With the aft deck in place, back to getting the skins “nailed” down. Or something like that. I can already tell that there will be more places I’ll need some assistance. My wife is virtually trembling with excitement to jump back in the tailcone on a hot summer day with no air circulation. In all seriousness, she’s excellent and with her help we will knock these out fairly quickly. For the most part, once again, the skins went in really well. I keep working my way from the center out and haven’t had any issues with the match drilled holes lining up.
- Total time today – 2 hours
- Total time empennage – 195.5 hours
- Total time aircraft – 203.5 hours