Chapter 6 Fuselage Assembly

Started: January 7, 2005 Completed: February 27, 2005

Step 1 - Assembly of the Fuselage Sides

This is where all of the stuff that you have been doing so far comes together. I sweat more this chapter because I was worried that my tolerances weren't tight enough or that something wouldn't fit or something like that. But with a bit of trimming and sanding and a lot of thinking and staring and joggling things around it all came together (so far).

MISTAKE 1 - In my excitement, I did not test fit my parts to the fuselage sides prior to taking apart my jigs- (DON"T DO WHAT I DID) This caused me to have to deal with them freely on the table and I paid for it with some dings in the unprotected foam of the outer fuselage in doing so. Test fitting is very important and will determine how well things go together early in this chapter. Take your time and test fit while things are still jigged up.

MISTAKE 2 - I decided to assemble the fuselage on the table - (DON'T DO THIS EITHER) I HIGHLY reccomend that you do this on the ground (down lower) where you can reach everything without having to climb on the table. I ended up unfastening everything and building jigs on the floor and costing myself about 3 hours of frustration and lost time trying to re-invent what Nat and others have already worked out.

DEPARTURE FROM PLANS 1 - This I do recommend. There is a method for assembling your fuselage upside down described here on Rick Maddy's site. I used a combination of this method and the plans method for jigging and assembling the fuselage. I don't know that there is a "right" or perfect way to do this but this way is definately good.

I first assembled the jig similar to the plans on the floor using a 2" x 12" x 10' piece of lumber left over from my deck building this summer. After marking an accurate centerline to work from I then fastened the 2" x 4" x 4' wood to the end and measured the length of the fuselage and fastened 2 more. Measure - Check - measure more... I eventually got what you see here. Not too hard so far... While doing all of this check for level both ways and be accurate about it because you are going to jig your fuselage upside down on this and it will determine the straightness of the upper longerons. I just kept thinking about the canopy later on matching the upper longerons. That's pretty good incentive to make it straight.

I then fastened the firewall to one end of this jig. To do this I had to cut off the top of the temporary firewall. I proped it straight and added a stiffiner (in the form of a 2 x 4 piece) to the bottom of the firewall so that it was more rigid and easier to level and jig straight.

After this I fit the fuselage sides into the temporary firewall and passenger 1 and 2 took a ride :-) Passenger 1 was trying not to be amused but cracked a smile despite herself . Passenger 2 was as giddy "as a school-girl" and couldn't stop smiling.

Now the test assembly begins. Starting with the seat back, then the Instrument Panel and finally F-22. You assemble, sand, fit and make perfect here all the while leveling and making sure that everything is PERFECTLY STRAIGHT. My recommendation here is take your time and then walk away from it and then take some more time making sure it's right. It will be perfect and this is where the rest of your plane will either be straight or... well... not straight. I don't like not straight.

Eventually you will want to block and fasten everything in so that when you do a final assembly it will be easier. To accommodate this I build up some wooden blocking to hold things like the seat back and F-22 and such.

Once I was comfortable with everything I took it all appart and prepared to put it together for good. This involves a lot of flox and rope and jigs and other stuff to help hold the bulkheads in place and squeeze the sides together while the whole lot cures.

Jan 17, 2005 - The Work Continues

Landing Gear Bulkheads

Cold weather in Ohio has made it difficult to keep the garage warm enough overnight to cure layups and I don't feel good about leaving the heater that I am using unattended throughout the night. This causes the garage to cool off to about 58 degrees at night. I am heating like crazy to keep it very warm in there during the day to make up for it but cure times are much slower than I'd desire.

I have installed the all of the Landing Gear bulkheads now though. I must say that doing this part upside down has made this much easier than I can imagine it would go right side up. Gravity helps keep everything in place and since you can hang the bulkheads on the lower longerons with it like this all you need are a couple clamps to make sure that it doesn't move during cure. I did the Forward bottom and and Aft landing gear fuselage first. Once this cured (it was warmer those days) I inststalled the forward top landing gear fuselage. (above right) Both weren't too bad. I had some help from another builder on the first two and we worked on it until it was perfect. This made the later much easier to install. I used an elastic bungie cord (orange in the picture) and a couple of clamps to hold the ears in place and things went quite nicely.