Fuselage - Forward Section
I finished-up the left side AFT of F-704, and started on the right side. After a few hours, Patricia came out and offered to help. Again, my arms were rubber from riveting overhead, but I couldn't pass up the help. We started on the AFT rivets that I could not reach by myself, and managed to mangle the all-important rolled edge.
So, what happened, and what can we do to get things right the next time? Well, as I said, I was tired, and should have quit. You have to resist setting just one more rivet, when you are tired. The second problem was that Patricia had not set or bucked a rivet in probably 9 months. We did a few easy to get at rivets for practice, and after a few mistakes, I thought we were ready for the AFT rivets, so that really was not a problem. The real problem was that Patricia is pretty short, and she could not reach the rivets comfortably. I should have gotten her a chair to stand on, or a foot stool, but like I said, I was tired and not thinking straight. Next time will be better.
 | Finished-up the rivets on the left side, that could be reached alone. I might be able to get to the F-715 rivets from the front. Note, that the FWD fuse parts are not cleco's on. |
 | That's a drill-out. I think I had a couple on the left side--it happens. |
 | Finished all of the rivets that I could reach on my own, then Patricia came out to help. The FWD rivets were ok. |
 | Then, we attacked the bottom AFT rivets. At least, it looks like we attacked them. One problem is that the clecos cannot pull the AFT rolled edge tight enough, so riveting is a bit of a problem here. Also, Van's callouts are just plain wrong here--too short, as usual. |