Seat back stops

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The next task on the F-705 was to fabricate the seat back stops that get riveted to the bulkhead’s top channel. The stops provide a stop (duh) for the hinged plates on the back of each seat back that allow the backs to be reclined a little. There are two stops for each seat; an angle that’s simply riveted to the back of the channel, and a piece of aluminum stock that sits on top of a small spacer that lifts the stock away from the bulkhead.

Here’s the aluminum stock receiving a slght bend so that its aft end nests under the yet-to-be fabricated angle. I bought a cheapo bending brake from Harbor Freight…seems to work ok if the part being bent isn’t too thick.

Bending the forward seat stops

After bending, the front stop and its associated spacer get match-drilled to the channel.

Seat stops clecoed in place

…and here’s the aluminum angle rear stop being fitted and match-drilled. The only trick here is to make sure the angle rides 1/8″ above the channel; that leaves some room for the front stop and the seat back support.

Fitting the seat stop angles

And so…the seat back stops are done!

Back to work on the bulkheads

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I haven’t made much progress on the fuselage recently due to work on the wings, but now it’s back to work on the bulkheads – specifically the F-705 rear spar carrythrough bulkhead. Here’s the 2024-T4 strap that forms the primary carrythrough load path. It gets match-drilled to the lower bulkhead channel…

Rear spar carrythough bar

…and here’s the doubler that forms the other half of a clevis with the strap (above) that retains the wing rear spar ends. This part was match-drilled in assembly with the strap and lower bulkhead channel. Nothing particularly tough here.

Rear spar carrythough doubler

Here’s the entire lower channel and spar carrythrough structure clecoed together after match-drilling.

Rear spar carrythough doubler

One gotcha

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One gotcha when doing final assembly on the bulkheads…I found that when I drilled the spacer bolt holes out to 0.25″, there must have been some chips generated by the drill that scored the sides of the hole. This is in the heavy bar that forms part of the rear wing carrythrough bulkhead, so I was somewhat concerned – don’t want any crack initiators in a part of primary structure.

I spoke with my Tech Counselor, and sent pictures to Vans tech support and engineeirng (note from the future – I also talked with Ken Kruger, Vans Chief Engineer, at Oshkosh 2010) – all said that there are no issues because there are essentially no loads on these spacer bolts. They’re there only to hold the spacer in place.

Fuse bulkhead scoring within hole

See the larger picture here.

Wings safely at the Aero Club

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We’re building in a large (by Boston standards) one-car garage, so we had to move the wings out to make room for the fuselage. Today was the day we rented a large U-Haul truck to make the move to our storage space (and eventual building location) at Hanscom Field (KBED). I’d already moved the empennage out there earlier this year, so bit by bit the airplane is making its way to the airport. Ellen is holding the cradle in place while I take one last picture of the wings at the house.

Ellen and the wings

The wings in the truck. That cradle is pretty solid, but we didn’t want anything shifting around during the 11-mile drive to the airport. So everything is tied and chocked securely.

Wings securely mounted in the U-Haul truck

The trip was a non-event, and we got the wings safely to the hangar. Cool!

Wings safely at the Aero Club

The shop is empty, but not for long. After a little cleanup and rearranging, I’ll continue on with the fuselage.

Empty shop, but not for long!

Wings complete!

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Today was the day I hoped to finish everything. First step was to cleco the primed flap hinges in place.

Flap hinges clecoed before riveting

Next step was to rivet them in place. Easy work with the squeezer, but I took my time. No need to sprint to the finish line.

Flap hinge riveted in place

I borrowed Ellen for one last session of wing riveting to get the pitot mast in place. Call me sentimental, but I wanted us to do this last bit together because Ellen has been my constant support through this process.

lap hinge riveted in place

After that, I installed the flaps with temporary hinge pins…and the wings were complete. Holy merde, it’s been a long haul!

Wings complete!

Match-drilled the hinges

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With both flaps fitted and aligned, I match-drilled the hinges to the wing skins and flap braces. Nothing magical here, but following Brad Oliver’s lead I started drilling and clecoing at the ends of each flap and worked my way into the center. Worked great! Once again, no pictures…sorry.

Wing skin rivets complete!

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Today was the big day to finish riveting the lower wing skins. Dave Rogers provided his superior bucking skills and we knocked out the remaining three ribs and spar-to-skin rivets in a couple of hours. Yeah, I know it took waaaaay too long to get this whole effort done…but we’re done.

Dave and Dave finishing up wing skin riveting

The guilty parties…me, Captain John, Dave and Mitch at the completion of our work. As is our custom, we adjourned to the Sunset Grill and Tap for well-deserved refreshments.

wing skin rivets complete!

Wider hinge material in from Aircraft Spruce

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Got the wider hinge material in from Aircraft Spruce – quick, easy and not too expensive. I re-fitted the right flap and checked edge distances. No problem!

Right flap fitted

One complete hinge has two leaves. That covers both flaps. For some unknown reason, I thought the FedEx triangular tube mailing box deserved a picture…so here you go.

New piano hinges for flaps

Plenty of margin on edge distance, but that forward (or lower, in this picture) edge of the hinge will have to be radiused to fit snugly inside the flap brace. Nothing that a few strokes with the file won’t fix.

New hinges on flaps