Assemble
6/13/2021 – 0.6 hours
6/14/2021 – 1.6 hours
6/16/2021 – 1.8 hours
6/17/2021 – 1.3 hours
6/18/2021 – 2.7 hours
6/19/2021 – 3.7 hours
6/20/2021 – 2.4 hours
6/21/2021 – 1.1 hours
6/24/2021 – 0.9 hours
6/26/2021 – 2.8 hours
6/27/2021 – 2.2 hours
7/1/2021 – 1.2 hours
7/3/2021 – 3.0 hours
7/5/2021 – 3.5 hours
7/9/2021 – 0.3 hours
7/10/2021 – 0.9 hours
7/11/2021 – 3.0 hours
7/15/2021 – 1.6 hours
7/17/2021 – 0.8 hours
7/18/2021 – 4.2 hours
Riveting the lower portion of the aft fuselage looks easy enough, but it is a really long and involved step. There are a lot of rivets in multiple sizes, and I switched between several different riveting techniques depending on the specific situation. There is also the occasional rivet that needs to be replaced (oops!), which adds to the time and complexity of this step. It is easy to get in a hurry, but it pays to take the time to treat each rivet individually rather than trying to bang out a bunch of rivets in short order. It is important to step back periodically to both grade the completed work and come up with a plan for the next rivet(s).
My plan of attack on the side skins was to follow the instructions by riveting the flat sides before working on the curved portions toward the bottom of the fuselage. I decided to back-rivet the flat sides as much as possible, so I borrowed a large back-rivet plate from a fellow builder. The back-rivet plate is six feet long by 9 inches wide, which is a good size for the side skin stiffeners and bulkheads. I started with the top J-Stiffener at the center of the skin, and then worked up and down the bulkheads.
Back-riveting worked really well for a lot of the rivets in the center of the skin, but other riveting methods are required for rivets around the edges of the skins, a few difficult rivets in the center, and all of the rivets from the #10 bulkhead back. I set the rivets at the top of the skin along the longeron with the pneumatic squeezer and 2 1/2" longeron yoke. The bulkhead rivets just below the longerons were bucked as well as the bulkhead rivets that fall beneath the flanges of the J-Stiffeners. The rivets beneath the J-Stiffener flanges are particularly difficult to access, and the only way I could do it was with the steep-angled face of my small tungsten bucking bar. The rivets on the left side have an additional complication due to the wires that take up some of the space in the top J-Stiffener flange.
There is a lot going on aft of the #10 bulkhead. There are three closely spaced bulkheads, relatively tight quarters for bucking rivets, several different rivet lengths and diameters, and a lot of “do not rivet at this time” holes. It is very difficult to see the rivets below the J-Stiffeners, and I found the best way for me to set those rivets was by feel and then use a mirror to evaluate the work. The angle between the bulkheads and the skin is also very pronounced near the tail, and made it impossible to use the squeezer on the exposed rivets aft of the final bulkhead. Riveting the aft-most section of the empennage is time-consuming and requires multiple reviews of the plans to ensure the correct rivets are used, or not used, in each hole.
[3x Rivet Gun, Back-Rivet Set, Large Back-Rivet Plate, Pneumatic Squeezer, 2 1/2" Longeron Yoke, Flat Squeezer Set, #40 Drill, #30 Drill, Back-Rivet Tape, Saw Horses, Small Tungsten Bucking Bar, Medium Tungsten Bucking Bar. Swivel Head Flat (mushroom) Set]