-Well, the day started off great! I had whole morning and early afternoon I could spend dedicated to the airplane. Days like this don't come along often. Normally I read well ahead of the steps I'm doing, research things on some builders websites and on VAF forums to get a good visual in my mind, and am generally careful. I had done that for everything leading up to the fitting and drilling of the Front Seatback support. I'll continue after noting my steps below... -Drilled #12 bolt holes for the F812 angle where it attaches to the upper longeron. -Final drilled #30 F812 angle holes and the F819 aft deck to F811 and F810 holes. -Verified the F804 bulkhead cap cleco's were in place. -Verified the F823 mid side skin cleco's were in place. -Used cargo straps and clamps to get the outboard edges of the cockpit side rail edges flush with outer surface of the mid-side skins. -Everything pulled together nicely and I match drilled all the #40 holes to the upper longerons. -Final drilled #40 the cockpit rails to the center section fwd and aft bulkheads -Strap clamped the fuselage in the area of the gear tower to get them flush with vertex of the longerons. -Match drilled the 5 holes on each gear tower flange to the longeron. ****THIS IS THE POINT THAT I HAD RESEARCHED UP TO AND I STILL HAD PLENTY OF TIME TO SPEND IN THE GARAGE. SINCE THINGS WERE GOING SO SMOOTHLY, AND THE STEPS IN THE INSTRUCTIONS WERE PRETTY MUCH STRAIGHT-FORWARD, I PRESSED ON TO THE EXCITING STEP OF FITTING THE FRONT SEATBACK SUPPORT WITHOUT DOING MY NORMAL RESEARCH (INSTALLING A BIG POWDERCOATED STEEL PART IS ALWAYS AND EXCITING STEP)...**** -Cleco'd the seat back support brace L/R into place. -Final drilled #30 the seat back support brace L/R. -Separated and smoothed the edges of the 2 F856-1 spacers -Cleco'd the spacers into place under the cockpit rails where the front seatback support will attach. -Cleco'd the seat back support into place (WD808) for drilling. .....See continuation in Part 2.....
Top pic - strap clamping at the forward end of the cockpit rails, Bottom pic - at the LG towers.
Front seat support in place (in the wrong place that is...
Inadequate edge distance...call to Van's is in order....
