Brief Description: Prepare rear Fuselage Bulkhead and its Doubler
Here we prepare the rear Fuselage Bulkhead at the very rear of the tailcone, to which the tail spar and the horizontal stabiliser is mounted. A doubler plate (see second picture) adds strength and includes two "ears" which will be the mounting points for the bearings for the stabiliser mounting.
Lots of riveting here. Mostly solid round-headed rivets, but where the rivet squeezer cannot reach the plans call for pop rivets. The pop rivets on some of the nutplates are different, and in fact hollow as the stem pulls right out.
Obviously lots of rivet work here, so I was annoyed to find I had put a "smiley" on one of the rivets adjacent to one of the "ears". I learned afterwards that this would have been acceptable, but I elected to drill it out - big mistake. The replacement rivet didn't go in straight so I drilled that out too. At this point the drill broke and I ended up with an enlarged hole. I'm going to have to take advice on this, which means I am not ready to install this assembly :-(
The rear view shows the tail skid bracket attached (which I had previously fabricated).
