FUSELAGE CONSTRUCTION - Page 26.

October 15, 2003:  RIVETS!  Many rivets indeed.  My neighbor Ray Johnson offered to buck rivets with me and today was our first day working as a team.  The entire forward section was completed in an evening session.  The floor and stiffeners and the forward side skins ahead of the F904 bulkhead were completed.  It feels good to see the clecos out of there.  The clecos holding the main longerons at the bottom of this photo will be there for months to come until the top skins are ready to go on.  I see two clecos at the forward edge of the firewall that can also be removed since the supporting angles inside are already riveted in place.

October 16, 2003:  The major amount of riveting on the fuselage skins is completed.  The steps are installed and the whole thing is rolled over to the upright position.  Tomorrow, I hope to have the time to cut the legs on the saw horses down to size for the remaining work to be done on the fuselage.  The total construction time now stands at 814 hours.

October 17, 2003:  A few more hours today to cut two of the saw horses down to 18 inches above the garage floor and to work on the airplane a bit.  I drilled the two fuel line access holes and the fuel vent line holes in the side of the fuselage.  I also fabricated two spacers used in the tail section.  The fuselage is now level on the saw horses and the rear deck plate has been clamped in place and match-drilled to the longerons.  I still have to cut the legs on that third saw horse "just a little bit" to get it under the tail where I really want it.

October 19, 2003:  A day with another symbolic milestone - "The first fitting of the aft top skins!"  It sure felt good to have those skins on at the end of a 9-hour work session.  Along the way today, I also put in several key gussets and the vertical rib that secures the elevator bellcrank assembly just aft of the baggage compartment.  Plenty of match drilling remains for the next work session.  (I took Saturday off to visit my mom and sister in the Atlanta area.)