Riveted together the center section skeleton. No problems, but a few things I'll note for future reference or if somebody else happens to read this while researching their own project.

1. The drawing calls out a series of 5/8” holes in the F-716 ribs fwd and below the lightening hole for pitot lines or whatever. In lots of build logs I see guys who have done this to all the ribs, but the print shows that the 2 innermost ribs don't get these holes. I debated on whether to drill them since nobody seems to be having problems with this, but those 2 ribs already have a relief on the fwd flange where there are holes in the F-704 and that seems like a lot of meat removed in a pretty small area so I elected to not drill the two center ribs.

2. There are optional holes in a couple of places that are to be drilled if you're going to locate the main battery in the tail one. I'm pretty sure I'm going with the standard firewall mount for the battery, but it doesn't cost anything to add those holes so I went ahead and drilled them “just in case”.

3. Installed the AN4 bolts in the holes in the F-704 that are there for landing gear weldments if your building an A model. May be a little hassle bucking the lower skin rivets in a couple of places, but probably not as much trouble as trying to get a nut on the lower ones after everything is assembled.

4. On the aft F-704, there are AN3 bolts that go through the spar caps into the seat ribs. The exploded view shows the bolts going in from the aft side. One of the notes says it's ok for the threads on these bolts to ride on the rib flanges which indicates the go in the other way.

I called vans and they said it didn't matter which way they went in so I installed them with the heads aft. If anybody ever has to take those ribs out due to an unfortunate incident, it will be a lot easier than trying to get those bolts out through the 1.4” gap between the 2 halves of the spar box.

5. The F-705 has a TON of different length rivets going through it. I had to drill out one where I got in a hurry and accidentally stuck the wrong one in and clenched the tail.

6. The upper fwd flange of the F-704 gets a AN426 flush rivet through the top into each seat rib. The print calls out to countersink the flange for these. I didn't see this call out until I had already dimpled them. Don't see how this will cause any problems. I believe that callout is likely to make it easier to slide the rib flange up under the spar flange. Was able to get it all to nest properly without difficulty.

Got this wrapped up in time to go pick RJ up from work, then headed to KC for 3 days of training at AEA's Avionics Installation for Experimental Aircraft. When that's over on Friday I'm heading down to see Mom and Dad for a couple of days a so I'm not going to get any shop time for about a week. Felt great to get this step done before I left. Great day today,