I started working on the flap system, which is mostly the torque tubes and crank that connect the motor to the wings.
This starts by setting the torque tubes and horns in very specific angles/distances and match-drilling for bolts:
Flap horn, torque tube and crank in position for drilling
Drilled and bolted flap torque tube, horn and crank
Both torque tubes and horns drilled and bolted to the crank
These tubes are mounted into delrin blocks for alignment, so those had to be trimmed:
Delrin bushing blocks marked for trimming
Trimmed torque tube bushings
After priming the tubes, we installed them, which was actually quite a bit more work than expected given how tightly everything fits together (and the layer of primer doesn't help there):
Installed flap torque tubes, bushings and crank
Torque tube to horn attachment bolts, in a tight area
Horn, torque tubes, bushing and crank
With this, the only step left in section 40 is actually installing the motor, but for that I need to finish figuring out the bracket for the PHA motor (which also involves completing the last few steps of section 26)
Time lapse:
Total flap system rivets: 0 Total flap system time: 14.0h
I've been working on the baggage door slowly, whenever there's nothing else to work on.
This section is mostly straight forward - cleco everything together and final-drill:
Main door parts clecoed together and final-drilled
then the tricky part, which is making the hinge and drilling it on both sides such that the door is actually flush to the rest of the skin:
Marking the hinge holes for the door side
Marked hinge for drilling
I also used the common deviation from plans that involves cutting half the hinge eyes so that pins can be inserted from the center, allowing the whole hinge to be closer to flush with the skins:
Door hinge with 3 half eyes removed for pin insertion
Making the door hinge almost flush with the skin
Finally, the recommended method to drill the other half of the hinge to the fuselage involves modifying clecos so they fit inbetween the halves:
Specially modified clecos for the door hinge
then centering the door and match-drilling from the inside:
Door centered in place and held by tape
which, of course, went very wrong:
Accidental double hole when drilling the fuselage side of the door hinge :/
so I did the whole hinge over from the start, just reusing the door side holes and match-drilling the door to the hinge rather than the other way around. This time I was a lot more patient and careful in drilling the hinge frame into the hinge, so it went fine, and I countersunk the hinge:
Match-drilled and countersunk door hinge
The next steps are just deburring, primer and riveting.
I was also considering adding a baggage door sensor (microswitch or similar), but given how hard that'll be, it's probably not worth it.
I continued working on the access covers, first by getting the seat back brace closeout to actually go in and be final-drilled:
Seat back brace closeout in place for final drilling
After I primed some parts, I riveted the floor pans:
Floor pans with nutplates, ready to be installed
Installed rear seat right floor pan
Installed rear seat left floor pan
For the outboard row of rivets, where you have to buck in a tight area, it quickly became clear that solid rivets were not going to work very well:
Bad, removed rivets from trying to use solid rivets on the outboard row of the floor pan
so (after finding something from Van's saying that they're not load bearing) we switched to blind rivets and got that done quickly as well:
Blind rivets used on the outboard rows of the floor pans
Next was match-drilling the rear seat cover panel to the longeron, and installing nutplates there:
Machine-countersunk nutplate attachment holes on longeron
Nutplates installed underneath longeron
and finally, I realized I should have final-drilled and machine-countersunk the top flange of the forward fuselage bulkhead long before, so I did it now:
Machine-countersunk top bulkhead flange
Time lapse:
Total access cover and floor panel rivets: 286 Total access cover and floor panel time: 19.3h
