Tailcone drilling

Drilling is the order of the day - there are thousands of holes in the tailcone to be match-drilled, final-drilled, pre-drilled, etc.

Aft deck secured in place
Before drilling, I had to ensure the right longeron alignment:
Longeron alignment to top edge of skin
Longeron alignment to skin and aft deck
Next was the top section - first the stiffeners:
Top stiffeners in place
then the skins, which I found easier to work with after turning the whole tailcone sideways:
Top skins in place (mostly)
Access to the inside of the tailcone is becoming much harder, and I can see that riveting these skins will be "fun":
Inside the tailcone with the top skins in place
Next comes a little more drilling (still need to finish match-drilling those top stiffeners), then working on the aft deck and a few smaller details (shoulder harness anchors, cover plate, tiedown eyebolt, etc.), and then finally on the bellcrank/battery case.

I'm also spending some considerable time planning the various systems that will go into the tailcone - static ports, transponder, ADS-B, Stormscope, APU plug, autopilot and trim servos, ELT, etc.


Time lapse:



Total tailcone time: 44.4h

1 comment:

  1. O máximo. Amei. Paty cada dia que passa vc me surpreende mais. Parabéns. Siga em frente sem desanimar. Este projeto é demais.

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