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Wendells RV-6A
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Date: 7-29-2012
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Number of Hours: 3.00
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Manual Reference: Steps
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Brief Description: External Steps 5
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Finished drilling 1.5 inch hole in fuselage for the pilot external step and then drilled the floor rib to 1.75 inch hole size to allow alignment to be exact when I locate the UHMW block to the next inboard rib web. That secures the end of the step tube and greatly strengthens the whole assembly. Again, I enlarged the 1.5 inch fuselage hole just enough on some sides to allow the the step tube weld bead to fit within that fuselage hole. You do that by test fitting, seeing where it is binding, mark it and with a drill rasp, grind off a little and re test it. Finishing that allows the mounting plate to rest flat against the fuselage, except near the bottom where I had to bend it and trim the aft bottom corner to conform to the curving fuselage. No big deal, just tedious. Marked the location of existing rivets in fuselage that would interfere with mounting plate rivet holes and then re-marked a couple of pilot holes a little to solve that. Drilled all the pilot holes #40 first. Cleco on , Cleco off. Cleco on, Cleco off, over and over until the bending matches the fuselage. The very last effort to snug up the plate against the curving fuselage skin was the take a 1/2 inch drive extension, put the larger end against the plate and tap on the the extension with a hammer and it beautifully snugged the two parts together. I'm sure there are other devices to use (maybe a bucking bar, etc, but the extension concentrated the force in a small diameter... and it worked fine.) Drilled the last pilot hole in that location and called it a night.
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Pilot Step ready to enlarge to #30 for final primer and riveting.
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Pilot Step tube drilled and bolted in place
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Both steps ready to paint and rivet.
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