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[May 16, 2007]


After putting in the j-stiffeners, I noticed that the forward ends need to be trimmed just like the aft end.


Here is another shot. There is no way the bulkhead that goes here can fit/


Take a look at how seamlessly the skin traverses all of the bulkheads...NOT! There had to be 1/4" inward bow. Time to flange these aft two bulkheads with a hand seamer.


Instead of doing the iterative thing because these flanges aren't perpendicular, I got smart and used a T-bevel to grab the angle. This made it a piece of cake to use the hand seamers to fix the bulkheads. After I refit everything, the skins were much more flush.


Next was onto getting any twist out of the fuselage. You can see two angled pieces of wood on the top of the sawhorses to adjust everything.


Here is a shot of the aft bulkhead with a plum bob.


..and the forward part.


To double check everything, I took a number of readings with the the smartlevel





Looks like the fuselage is twist free. The unfortunate thing about all of this is I don't have any time to drill the aft fuselage tonight, nor for the next few days. I am going out of town for a buddies wedding over the weekend. Should be a good break from the project. Lately I have had a real lack of motivation for the project. Seems to coincide with the temps outside getting hotter and more stuff to do other than the project. Gotta fix this trend and get by butt back in gear to build this RV!


Although everything looks nice and level, I am not satisfied with the fact that the fuse can squirm around easily on my sawhorses. I think I am going to flip the fuselage over and level it that way. With the top of the aft skins sitting on the sawhorses, there is no doubt that it will be more solid. Also, drilling the holes on the bottom of the fuse should be a walk in the park - much better than drilling from laying on the ground and getting metal bits embedded in my eyes (even though I do wear safety glasses). But then again, after 3 days in a drunken stooper at my friends wedding my outlook could be different!
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Last Modified: August 13, 2023