Fuselage - Forward Section

2006-01-14 - The Cabin - Framing the baggage area. (5.0 Hrs).

Installed the F-722/F-724 ribs and the F-750 side panels in the baggage area. Then, I started on the tasks that have to be done before riveting the side skins.

Attaching nutplates to the F-722L horizontal rib.

F-724 rib cleco'd in place. This is a pain to get to, and I thought I would rather do this after the fuselage was right-side-up. Of course, you need to match drill the ribs to the side skins, which will need to be dimpled. So, you have to just get under there and do it now.

F-722 Horizontal rib added to the F-724 Vertical rib.

Cleco on F-750. This is easier said than done. This took a lot of installing, removing, looking at the plans, installing, does this really fit here, etc. The problem was that F-722 and F-724 needed to be bent a little to get the holes to line-up. I spent a lot longer than the two minutes that you would expect this to take. The dogs went out twice while I was doing this.
BTW, the left side took two minutes.

See, it really does fit.

Mark and drill F-724 to the longeron.

Started working on the "tasks that need to be completed" list. First thing was to remove the side skins. I wasn't sure if the FWD fuselage would hold together when I removed the side skins, but it did. You need to cleco the underlying structure behind you as you remove the side skin.

Once the skins are off, we can get to the 1/8" holes that hold F-750 to F-722.

Then, I had to put the left skin back on because I found a hole in F-902 that I thought needed to be drilled to the longeron. I needed the side skin to hold F-902 in place so I could drill the end flange to the upper longeron.

Oops, I thought I needed to attach F-902 to the upper longeron, but I looked at DWG 23, and it says not to drill this hole until the subpanel is installed. Oh, well.

In the process of clecoing the side skin on, I found a few holes that were not drilled between the side skin and the upper longeron, so this was not a total waste of time. I checked the right side before removing the side skin, and everything was ok.

No side skins.

	Attaching nutplates to the F-722L horizontal rib.
	F-724 rib cleco'd in place. This is a pain to get to, and I thought I would rather do this after the fuselage was right-side-up. Of course, you need to match drill the ribs to the side skins, which will need to be dimpled. So, you have to just get under there and do it now.
	F-722 Horizontal rib added to the F-724 Vertical rib.
	Cleco on F-750. This is easier said than done. This took a lot of installing, removing, looking at the plans, installing, does this really fit here, etc. The problem was that F-722 and F-724 needed to be bent a little to get the holes to line-up. I spent a lot longer than the two minutes that you would expect this to take. The dogs went out twice while I was doing this. BTW, the left side took two minutes.
	See, it really does fit.
	Mark and drill F-724 to the longeron.
	Started working on the "tasks that need to be completed" list. First thing was to remove the side skins. I wasn't sure if the FWD fuselage would hold together when I removed the side skins, but it did. You need to cleco the underlying structure behind you as you remove the side skin.
	Once the skins are off, we can get to the 1/8" holes that hold F-750 to F-722.
	Then, I had to put the left skin back on because I found a hole in F-902 that I thought needed to be drilled to the longeron. I needed the side skin to hold F-902 in place so I could drill the end flange to the upper longeron.
	Oops, I thought I needed to attach F-902 to the upper longeron, but I looked at DWG 23, and it says not to drill this hole until the subpanel is installed. Oh, well.
	In the process of clecoing the side skin on, I found a few holes that were not drilled between the side skin and the upper longeron, so this was not a total waste of time. I checked the right side before removing the side skin, and everything was ok.
	No side skins.