Started the forward fuselage section. The first thing I did was cleco all the parts together to see how they looked and how they assembled. I know it takes longer to pre-assemble things like this rather than just get on with it but I like to see how they go together before I do anything.
With that done. I then made a start on the stiffeners for the baggage compartment floor. And here is where I noticed that the F-870CDE angle that I had differed from the plans. It appeared to be reversed and didn't exactly match the drawings. The F-870C-1 inboard stiffener was on the right-hand side, as were the trim line notches for the F-870D/E stiffeners. In all other respects, though, it seemed fine. I test fitted all the stiffeners before doing any trimming or anything and everything lined up ok. Not sure how it turned out this way, but no biggie. I decided it was no problem, trimmed as necessary and carried on with it.
The picture below shows the faulty F-870CDE part as supplied by Vans. As you can see in the plans, the bit that needs to be removed is on the left, as the part is shown (the green ellipse). However, as supplied, the part was effectively reversed end-to-end and the notches for the trim line were on the right-hand side (the red ellipse).
