Time for the weekend update. I got to spend a fair amount of time in the garage this weekend. Friday evening I hung the firewall on the fuselage and started the process of mounting the many, many longerons, gussets, bulkheads spacers, and many more parts that seem to take way longer than they should to get right. The lower longerons needed a "small" twist, the auxiliary longerons needed a twist, oh and also part of one side of the angle removed. I don't think there was a single part that got installed this weekend that didn't require some sort of bending, twisting, or at least "fitting". I have been reading many accounts of problems with the F-996B and C parts. Turns out that Van's plans actually have the wrong dimensions for the location of two of the end holes. Took me 2 tries apiece to get the C correct. Anyway the forward angle work is complete and now I get to move on to the rudder pedals and associated mounts. Not much for pictures but here is what I ended up with at the end of the various days.
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| Friday nights work ended with the firewall mounted, drilled, and the floor cleco'd on. |
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| Closeup shot of the upper firewall mount. This required lots of finess to get it "right" then I had to add a few clamps to make sure nothing moved while I was drilling it out. |
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| This is how things sit tonight. I spent all day on this section of the fuselage as I noted in the comments. 10 hours of work. |
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| Here is a look at the inside where I spent most of the weekend. |
