Tight fit - F729A

I am clecoing the aft fuselage together. F-729A (bellcrank rib) will barely wedge in between F-706B and F-707. In fact I had to de-cleco F-706, slip the rib in and cleco it, then cleco the belly skin back on to F-706. There is certainly no room to slip the F-730 reinforcing plate in between the two.

Is this common, or have I done something wrong?

I was convinced my F729A was misbent or otherwise mismanufactured. It wasn't. I don't remember now how I got it in place, but it fits perfectly once it is in position. I was surprised, because I was used to forcing things into line for other parts of the project, and this one really didn't want to fit. But it does. Try changing the order of assembly, an also make sure there isn't too much racking of parts in the tailcone.

You're right, it does fit... with enough "Cleco encouragement".

I had to de-cleco the bottom end of F-706 and F-707. Then I clecoed the vertical rib, F-730 spacer, F-706 and F-729A all together, got them in place and clecoed the assembly to F-706. Then I worked my way in from the outboard edges of F-706 and F-707, alternating every few rivet holes until I had both bulkheads clamped fully in place. At this point the rivet holes in F-729A did not line up with the holes in the belly skin, but with a little encouragement I was able to get it to line up and get all the clecos in.

I think I got spoiled by the empennage and wings. If something just wouldn't line up there, I just assumed I had it together wrong and that usually turned out to be the case. With the fuse it seems there's a fair chance it's just going to take a lot more work and patience to get it to line up right. This is going to be a long few months, I think.