Fuselage - Forward Section

2006-04-09 - Riveting the side skins - start on the right side. (3.0 Hrs).

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.