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When to rivet center bottom skin to tailcone?

rmartingt

rmartingt

Well Known Member
I'm at the stage of starting to drill up the two rows of rivets common to the center bottom skin and the tailcone. Getting that center fuselage in place was nearly a disaster (almost dropped it and got trapped under it) and I'd like to go ahead and get it drilled and prepped for riveting as soon as possible, so that I don't have to worry about it again.

Does anyone see a problem with going ahead and doing that now, before I start fitting all the structure forward of the wing carrythrough?
 
Match drill? sure.....are you going with auto pilot? I would install the servo mounting bracket in the tail cone before joining the two. and for your entertainment, here is me joining the two...solo...
https://youtu.be/UQHa3OdgsoY
 
And the ELT mounting bracket too. I installed the one from Vans but had to pull it back out to fit the mount that came with my Artex ELT. Wasn't fun...
 
I'm in almost the exact same build progress spot as well. This is the kind of stuff that I love to hear, but don't know what to do with it. How do I know what brackets to put in? I'm at least 2 to 3 years away from flying this plane and not sure what company I'm going with for avionics so what do I do for the A/P bracket? I really don't know anything about ELT's either. I know these things can be added later, but if it's way easier to do now then I would like to put them in. Kinda sounds like I'm whining a little bit, but I guess I'm just confused about what to do. Any advice?
 
dwranda said:
I'm in almost the exact same build progress spot as well. This is the kind of stuff that I love to hear, but don't know what to do with it. How do I know what brackets to put in? I'm at least 2 to 3 years away from flying this plane and not sure what company I'm going with for avionics so what do I do for the A/P bracket? I really don't know anything about ELT's either. I know these things can be added later, but if it's way easier to do now then I would like to put them in. Kinda sounds like I'm whining a little bit, but I guess I'm just confused about what to do. Any advice?
Click to expand...

I would do the AP mount and ELT bracket now when it is easy. The ELT bracket mounts either on the floor or on the side. I opted for the side mount to keep the floor open if I had to climb into the back, which I did for installation of two OAT probes for my Dynon system (primary / backup).

The ELT mount has holes already drilled for nutplates. I opted to pull it and install additional nutplates rather than drill new holes in the ELT mount plate (stainless steel). In hind-sight, it would have been much quicker to drill new holes in the ELT mount plate.

Don't forget to prop up the tail before climbing into the tail section. I know a guy that forgot. :D Luckily, no damage was done.
 
I mounted an ELT bracket at the side rear location during the build, but when I got a Kannad 406 I learned there is a built in GPS antenna in the unit. so I mounted it in the baggage area, easy to remove and hook up to a backup antenna if need be.
 
Raymo said:
I would do the AP mount and ELT bracket now when it is easy. The ELT bracket mounts either on the floor or on the side. I opted for the side mount to keep the floor open if I had to climb into the back, which I did for installation of two OAT probes for my Dynon system (primary / backup).

The ELT mount has holes already drilled for nutplates. I opted to pull it and install additional nutplates rather than drill new holes in the ELT mount plate (stainless steel). In hind-sight, it would have been much quicker to drill new holes in the ELT mount plate.

Don't forget to prop up the tail before climbing into the tail section. I know a guy that forgot. :D Luckily, no damage was done.
Click to expand...

Good call on the autopilot bracket--I'll need to get that stuff ordered. I can do that when I separate them for the deburr/dimple cycle. I think I'll wait at least until I've gotten it flipped back over before doing the ELT mount because I don't know what I'm going to get or where I want to put it.

First conical bend done today; we'll see if I can get the other one knocked out one evening this week.
 
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