1/1/2009 - 2 Hours
Twisted then drilled the bottom longerons to the WD-603.  Also started on the F-684. The left side is close to fitting.


1/2/2009 - 2 Hours
Finished off the F-684 brackets. Well fitting and drilling them anyway. Realized afterwards that I forgot the hole for the platenut. Not a big deal. Also drilled the bottom longeron to the side skin. Then reinstalled the bottom skin and match drilled it all together.


1/3/2009 - 3.5 Hours
Drilled and riveted the platenuts on F-684.
Drilled and riveted the platenuts on F-902. Enlarged the holes to 5/8 that will hold the rudder cable. Fitted to the forward section along with F-7101 gear attach webs. Drilled assembly to the skins and longerons. Drilled the tabs.
Fabricated F-796C/D as shown in pic 3. Also fab'd the F-796B. The 1st one took a half hour to figure out all the angles and dimensions... the second one took under 3 minutes to complete!


1/6/2009 - 1.5 Hours
Worked on the attaching F-796B/C/D to the skins and aux/lower longerons. I don't think Van's directions are very good at this point. I would have done it differently. Simply holding up F-796B and drilling the holes would have been one helluva lot simpler than doing it their way. Van's has you drill the upper most hole in the B bracket first (granted I drilled mine to 3/16 whereas the direction call for #30) then fit to side skin and longerons. After which you line up your marked centerline on the outboard of the B bracket in the holes then drill. It would have been much simpler to simply draw the centerline and then drill all the holes clecoing as you go. Anyway... I won't go into it too much but my way would take about .5 hours instead of the 1.5 Van's way. Don't get me started on the the callout of a 3/16" hole for the upper one but the rest get a #12... WTF?? Oh and no dimensions on where the center #12 hole should go... Use 796A as a guide...


1/7/2009 - .5 Hours
Installed the F-719B clip. This should have been done earlier but I elected to wait until I had better access. It proved to be worth the wait.


1/10/09 - 1 Hour
Assembled the F-6117 rudder/brake pedals. Nothing major to not here.


1/11/2009 - 2 Hours
Started with the F-6116 bearing block by drilling the required bolt hole in the blocks. Next, I figured it would be easiest to remove the aux longeron and then drill the corresponding bolt holes in the longeron using the F-6116 as a guide. Much easier than trying this with the long installed. I then installed the rudder pedal assemblies WD-655 R/L to the fuselage. Had help from Mitch on this. Bolted this assembly to the bearing blocks. Up next was the F-6118 rudder pedal brace. Drilled the rivet holes that will attach to the firewall, cut a notch out to fit the firewall and then drilled the lightening holes.


1/18/2009 - 3 Hours
Well, back at it again after a week off due to bitterly cold weather. The 3 space heaters could not keep up with the blowing wind and the sub zero temps. It finally made it to the high teens low 20's at which point I can get the temp in the garage up to 50+ or so.
I started with the rudder pedals and riveted them together. Then made the F-6119 rudder cable links but did not the drill the bolt holes since the plans say the holes vary with rudder pedal location. Whatever that means. Drilled the center rudder pedal block F-6115 to the F-6118 brace. Next up was was match drilling the skins to the bulkheads.... ones that hadn't done yet.
Also, remade some parts... F-796's as I was not happy with the hole to edge distance that I had. It's all good now.


1/19/2009 - 2.5 Hours
Had Mitch help me drill the F-772 floor stiffeners to the bottom skin. Need to come up with an angle drill to take care of some holes that attach to the firewall braces.
Next up was the baggage area framing.. F-724 and F-722. Simple..


1/20/2009 - 2 Hours
Did a number of things tonight... made spacers to fit between the firewall gusset and two of the floor stiffeners. Not sure why there is a gap there other than the gussets angle out a tad bit ... these are already riveted so I had to make stiffeners.
Next took care of a laundry list of sorts before this beast comes apart for deburring, priming and then riveting. Drilled the holes to 1" for the fuel lines, 7/16: for the vent lines, 5/8" for the pitot tube and electrical, rivet holes to nowhere and finally the 3/16" hole for flap pushrods.
Noticed while looking at the drawings for the various holes (dwg 28) on the skins that I missed the #19 hole for the rudder cable clamp. Drilled this and then did some creative dimpling.




1/21/2009 - 1.25 Hours
Drilled the 2 F-772 floor stiffeners to the F-783B cover support ribs and the F-601J angles. I wasn't able to do this per the directions which calls for an angle drill.. as I don't have one. Had to remove the bottom skin then put the two stiffeners back in cleco'd at both ends and then drill the holes. This proved effective and I didn't have to come up with an angle drill. I then deburred the stiffeners and the bottom skin.



1/22/2009 - 1.25 Hours
Deburring ... mmm lovin' it so much!

1/23-29/2009 - 7 Hours
More deburring and countersinking happiness....

1/31/2009 - 3 Hours
You guessed it... more of the same. Then end is in sight though.. then it's priming time.