My EAA volunteer Tech Counselor came over this weekend.  With the fuse upright, I wanted another set of expert eyes to look at our work.  We ended up fixing a handful of rivets that needed a few more hits with the gun, and also drilled out and replaced a couple that I wasn’t happy with.  All in all, it was a successful inspection and Bob thinks we’re building a fine ship.  Thanks again, Bob!

While Bob was around we rechecked the fuselage level and made a couple of tweaks, then drilled the aft deck.  This is an important step, since once the deck is in place, the fuselage is torsionally rigid – any twist is locked in for good.

With level double-checked, I clamped the deck in place and drilled it to the longerons…

…and boy is this structure stiff when the deck is in place.  After drilling – and making a big mess with aluminum shavings – I pulled the deck off and fabricated a couple of spacers for the aft bulkheads.

They go here –

Turns out that there’s a little gap that will need to be shimmed on the forward bulkhead –

A little 0.016″ sheet will fix this with no problems.