Attached forward bottom skin.

I finished shaping and attaching the forward bottom skin. I dimpled and installed flush rivets along the forward edge so that the cowling will lay across it smoothly. The sides are attached in this manner as well because the side skins overlap in this area. The only difference is that I dimpled the bottom skin and countersunk the longeron underneath.

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I'll begin to install the wheels and brakes so I can then turn the fuselage over.

Began landing gear installation.

I began installing the landing gear. I use a laser I bought at Harbor Freight as my main alignment tool. It has magnets on it, so I attach it to a long handled clamp and clamp the clamp to a small work table and place it in front of my project. I use it to align all the center lines from front to rear. I also used a tape measure to check all distances to the tail wheel bolt in the rear. Once I had everything where I thought it should be, I clamped the landing gear to the lower stingers with 4 clamps.

I should mention that I did this twice. The first time was see where the hole locations should be. I then removed the landing gear and drilled 1/8" pilot holes in it with my drill press. Then I re-aligned the gear and drilled those pilot holes through the stringers in the fuselage. Even though I used 4 clamps to hold the gear in place, I also used 1/8" bits, AN3 & AN4 bolts to place in the holes while I enlarged the holes to their final size to accept an AN5 bolt. The idea here is to make sure the holes stay aligned while you are enlarging the other holes. Here are a couple of photos.

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I had seen in other builder photos indicating one needs to be aware of possible interference of the side bolts that hold the side angle support in place between F3 & F5 bulkheads. I happened to be using pan head screws instead of countersunk screws at these locations, so I will be able to remove these screws temporarily to install the gear bolt nuts. Here are a couple of photos showing this situation.

I just noticed that I have mislabled the locations of these bolts. They are the right side, but I have the forward/rear locations reversed from what they should be.

Installing forward bottom skin.

The last two weekends I have continued working on the forward bottom skins. Everything is going fine, but there is a lot of trial fitting and trimming that has to take place before actually pulling rivets. I have also been preparing to install the landing gear by drilling pilot holes in the gear in preperation to locate it on the fuselage and transfer the hole locations to the lower longerons.

Here are a few photos. As always, look in my photo album for additional photos.

Misc. work effort

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I did work over the weekend, but didn't really accomplish a whole lot. I worked on shaping and attaching the the channel at F3 and began to install the tail wheel.

Look Ma, no work table!

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This was a big weekend as I was able to remove my fuselage from my work table. I flipped it upside down so that I could finish installing rivets on the underside of the belly skin. These are the rivets that you are not able to get at because of the jigging.

Before I flipped over my project, I cut the exit slots for the rudder cables where they come out of the fuselage in the rear.

Above I am attaching the belly skin to the center section.

Now I'll work on installing the forward bottom skins and install the tail wheel before I flip it over.

Pulled rivets on fuselage side skins.

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Feels good to make progress that you can see. After taking the skins on and off umpteen times to shape, file, debur holes, install cables etc., I was able to pull some rivets on both forward side fuselage skins today. I'm happy with the results.

The plans call for you to put on the left side skin and then pull the fuselage off your jig and table to install the controls before the other side is attached. I had heard that some who had followed these steps found that the fuselage would twist because only one side skin was being install at a time. They would have to remember this and somehow take the twist out before riveting the second side skin in place which usually solved the problem. I decided to install the controls and then rivet both forward side skins on at the same time to avoid the twisting issue. I pulled a few rivets on one side and then went and pulled some on the other until I was done. I left off both the rear skins so I can finish installing the controls. I have some minor things to clean up, but I should be able to pull my fuselage from the table and jig next session.

Control cables & fuselage skin.

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I strung the control cables and started to install the right side skin. I still need to bring the rudder cables out the lower rear skin, but I'll do that before I start pulling rivets.