I've thought about different solutions for riveting the tailcone rivets that I can't reach solo. Some guys have accomplished this with creative back riveting solutions or whatever. Ultimately, it seems like the simplest solution is to just move on to something else until I can get a rivet buddy.

Last week, I was skimming through some other build logs and discovered that now is a good time to install the pitch servo mount. I ordered one from Stein a few days ago and it showed up yesterday, so today was the day.

I started by having to drill out 4 rivets on the F-729 assy.

Per Garmin G3X install manual figure 18-13.1 The fwd edge of the mount is 2.66" aft of the bellcrank pivot hole on the F-729 bellcrank rib assy. and is match drilled to the 3,4,5 & 6th rivets aft of the same bellcrank pivot point. It also shows that you need to install a second row of rivets with a min. 1.0" spacing lower down on the web of the rib, but doesn't give a vertical dimension for that. I decided to just use the same spacing as the upper row, which if memory serves, is somewhere around 1 3/16" and arbitrarily set them up 5/8" from the bottom of the bracket by utilizing TLAR (That Looks About Right) engineering.

I've seen several build logs where folks have set the bottom flange of this bracket directly on the belly skin and put this second row of rivets through the flange and skin. This causes any loads to be transferred into the skin instead of the rib, which doesn't seem like the best idea. Garmin instructions clearly show that they should be into the rib, NOT through the skin.

I didn't like the idea of the bracket lower flange rubbing on the skin without being tied to it, so I spaced it up off the floor with a piece of .040 scrap before match drilling. This worked out perfectly to allow the main part of the bracket to be perfectly flush with the top edge of F-729 when located correctly with respect to the 2.66" dimensional callout.

Had some time left after all that, so I went ahead and drilled holes in the skin for the static ports I got from Stein a while back. The head of the static ports look just like the pop rivet solution that Vans originally called out, but the back side is threaded with a nut rather than just a pop rivet with some pro seal or whatever glopped on it, so the holes are 1/4".

After all that, I swept the shop, rearranged some stuff, and set up a spare sawhorse with an extended top so I can flip over the tailcone and rest it upside down when I get a rivet partner.