Brief Description: Riveted both external steps in place/Started assem
Today was a real milestone that I thought would NEVER come. We finished all the work on both external steps!!!!! I climbed in the fuselage and bucked all the rivets that you see in Image One while Claude stood outside and drove them. All the rivets were driven well even though some were quite difficult to buck. The plans gave us an option to use Pop rivets which wouldl have been easier of course but I think that both of us wanted to prove that we could finish the steps "fuss class". I rolled under the fuse and sealed the step flange up to keep out any fumes. ... We took a little break and celebrated by chugging some Gatoraid. ... Then we began assembling the parts for the left brake pedals. I don't plan on installing brake pedals on the right side. One of the first things that we had to do was fashion some angle aluminium parts and buff all parts to take out tooling marks.....As I look back over the month of August that today draws to a close, I find that we really accomplished a great deal although at the time, it seemed things were going so slow. We did all the work on the external steps, first cutting holes in the fuselage, then the floor ribs, fixed nylon blocks and today riveting them in place. Then we cut holes in the floor of the forward fuselage to install the main landing gear weldments which was quite an accomplishment. They are torqued and ready. Then we wired the wings for lights, etc. There is a little more to go on that like mounting the pitot tube and heating wires. Lastly we altered the float tubes to fit our tanks, fashioned the pickup tubes and riveted them in place sealing the whole thing up with Proseal. I feel good about this months work!
