20AUG2023
Today I was planning on disassembling the forward fuselage and start sanding parts for primer. However, as I disassembled I found some things that didn't look too good.
A couple of weeks ago, I was having some trouble with the l-angles for the seat supports. It's in a hard to reach area and my angle drill attachment isn't the best for these tight fit spots. I thought things were going alright until I put the seat pans on. There was some interference with the seat pan and the l-angles, so I trimmed the angles down. Then I asked Tom for his suggestions on drilling the pan to the supports and he found that the supports were just a little bit twisted. In order to fix that, I had to remake the l-angles because they needed to be a little more forward. I then back drilled through the holes I made the first time in the seat support and arm rest. As I was disassembling today, I noticed this....
(holes into the radius)
The new l-angle location needed in order to remove the slight twist in the seat support caused the holes to be in the radius of the angle. We didn't realize the angle position had to move that much forward.
I also had a few holes that are really close to the edge, such as below.
Once Tom arrived today, I asked him to look at these things and see if there was any way to fix or repair some of this. (It is very helpful to have a mechanical engineer husband who can help me with these kinds of things when I need it. 😄)
Based on where the first set of holes I drilled were and where the new holes needed to be for these l-angles, he said there wasn't enough room to drill new holes. We also weren't sure if having extra holes in this load spot would cause things to weaken.
As we were investing things, Tom noticed that the ends of cabin sides flex a bit. This made us realize that the angle of the cabin sides when I was drilling may have been different than what they will be once attached to the rear fuselage. So we took the cabin sides and floor assembly and attached it to the rear fuselage and then put the supports and l-angles back in. The cabin sides are definitely at a different angle and it was throwing the supports and l-angles out of whack. We also noticed that the rear seat support holes into the cabin side were now quite off. Below you can see the holes are at a slight angle. If I try to drill new holes for this once it is attached to the rear fuselage, I will end up with figure 8 holes or slots.
I had thought that if I had the forward fuselage on the bench it would be flat and things would be fine. I didn't realize that the cabin sides could flex so much, even after attaching them to the middle support. I also thought that since I was working on the bench and already in this area, I might as well work on the seats. I did not think the angle of the cabin sides would be different once on the rear fuselage and thus mess up all the work I did with the seat area. However, now seeing what this looks like I realize that I shouldn't have started on the seat area.
Since I can't redrill these areas because I will end up with figure 8 holes or slots, I have to redo everything. This was a very sad realization and costly mistake. I order all new parts, which cost around $1700, and I lost about 3 weeks of work. 😠Oh well, I have a better idea of what to do (and what not to do) next time.
After reordering parts and disassembling the forward fuselage, I started on the firewall. I was able to get the firewall clecoed together, so I feel like I accomplished something today.
Build Time: 4 hours 45 minutes