Tailcone is Forever Attached

Wow! I can't believe it's been over a week since my last post....what happened?

It's been raining every afternoon here with these monotonous afternoon pop up thunderstorms. Which in turn cancels my efforts to go flying. Until Saturday morning! I FINALLY was able to squeeze in a 1.3hr flight, just long enough to shoot 3 instrument approaches and land before the lighting started striking again.

I spent the rest of the weekend working on the plane. I mainly worked on the tailcone attach section although I dabbled in attaching the steps as well.
In summary:
1. I ordered my Com Antennas, Stainless Steel Heater Boxes, and some hardware and materials I'll need for the step section (more on that when I do the work).
2. Deburred, countersunk, and riveted (what I could reach solo) tailcone and fuselage frames and skins.
3. While deburring I discovered a misdrill I made. I have no idea how it happened. I'll discuss my fix later with pictures.
4. Smoothed out the welds on the steps for a better appearance.
5. Attached the delrin block for the step.
6. I got a buddy to help and finished riveting the tailcone to the fuselage. So now the tailcone and fuselage will forever be one and that section is complete.
7. Got a small start on the upper fuselage section.

Time Log
Wed 7th - 1.5hrs - Made skin shims, drilled out tailcone holes, drilled new holes in bottom
Sat 10th - 3.5hrs - Deburred, dimpled, other misc work
Sun 11th - 5.5hrs - Started riveting what I could reach, started installing step
Mon 12th - 2.5hrs - Got some help finishing up the riveting. Also got a small start on the upper fuselage section.
































This is the hole I misdrilled in the fuselage lower skin. I have no idea how it happened, but the little
snow man figure needs to go away.

 

 

I made a drilling template so I could center the new hole over the snow man. The new hole was drilled out large enough for a #5 rivet. I still had proper edge distance so moving up to a #5 rivet is really not a concern other than appearance and since this is on the bottom of the airplane that didn't concern me either.

The new larger hole (located to the right of the first rib on the left).

 

 

The new #5 rivet installed on the bottom of the aircraft. ...problem solved.

 

 

Baby's first time in the airplane!