Date:	11-23-2014
Number of Hours:	5.60
Brief Description:	Started Forward Side Skin Riveting.
Today I FINALLY got started on riveting the forward side skins. The fuselage now has a permanent "inside"! I started today by tweaking the aft few inches of the F-776 center bottom skin to make it lay better along the transition across the aft end of the curve of the F-770 forward side skin and the forward edge of the F-778 aft bottom skin. I then measured the twist of the fuselage at several fuselage bulkheads including the firewall, the F-711, and several bulkheads in between. Just like last time, I measured about 0.5 degrees clockwise twist of the firewall relative to the F-711. I was hoping that clecoing in the F-772 forward bottom skin would correct at least some of that twist but it didn't. The manual says that twist can be removed after riveting the side skins, but I wanted to get the fuselage as straight as I could before riveting. I was able to untwist the fuselage and hold it in that state by clamping the aft deck in place (photo 1). I overshot by about 0.2 to 0.3 degrees on the first try, but got all bulkheads within 0.1 degrees of each other on the second try. l sharpie-marked the top of the longerons along the edges of the aft deck to see if anything moves as time goes by. I then took the rivet sizes and lengths from Dwg 28, and wrote them on the side of the fuselage. Following the riveting order called out in the manual, I started by riveting both side skins to the F-704 bulkhead, then riveted them to the main longerons back to, but not including the F-705 bulkhead. From that point aft to the F-709, the main longerons will remain unriveted until the aft and rear top skins are installed (except for the 6 "keeper" rivets along each side of the aft fuselage). I had a little extra time, so I riveted the left side skin to the F-705, F-722, and F-724 aft fuselage bulkheads in the baggage compartment area (photo 2). Rivets Today: 185 Rivets Total: 10599