I decided to tackle clecoing the tailcone to the aft fuselage again today. This wasn't actually too bad. It just required a different order of clecoing everything together. When I first tried fitting the tailcone the other day I clecoed the F711 and F712 bulkheads to the tailcone and then tried coercing the assembly to the aft fuselage. This didn't work at all. I couldn't get the holes in the side skins to line up with the holes in the tailcone skins. My approach today involved disassembling the tailcone and then just clecoing the tailcone skin to the side and bottom skins. I then added the F711 and F712 bulkheads starting at the top and working my way down. This worked out very well and I was able to get all of the holes lined up. I'll have to remember this for the future when things don't quite line up right - just try clecoing the parts together in a different order. On another note, taking this 2nd approach to clecoing the tailcone to the aft fuselage required unclecoing and sliding the J-Channels forward a couple of feet so they were out of the way and then sliding them back once the F711 and F712 bulkheads and the tailcone were in place. To slide the J-Channels forward though, I had to temporarily remove the F706 forward bulkhead. All of this was worth it in the end though since I now have everything aligned and clecoed together. The aft fuselage is ready to be match drilled! Yippee!
Left view of tailcone aligned and clecoed together
Right view of tailcone aligned and clecoed together
