Section 29 on Halt

The battery and oil can box had to be built and put in place on the firewall. The part is really well designed and incredibly strong yet lightweight once installed.


It was a little hard to get at some of the rivets but the CQR solved all of these issues.

The next step was to seal all the rivets on the firewall and I wanted to also touch the spots where the firewall sealant didn't perfectly seal the FW. So I started with an inspection of the FW and see if there were any other issue before starting the sealing.
Well, I found some mystery holes that did get any rivets yet and I feel this might be in error. Look at this:


These are just 2 of 4 holes in the front of these stiffeners that didn't get a rivet yet. I wonder why and if I maybe overlooked the instruction that told me to rivets them? Any hints are appreciated!!!

Then I started the sealing job. MIxed about 50 grams of ProSeal (ended up using about 30 grams in 1.5 hours) and filled in one of my plastic syringes and started sealing everything. I know you can't really tell on the FW but I show it to you anyway.


It's much better to see on the canopy ribs.


On the left...


... and on the right side.

While the ProSeal was curing I continued to build by manufacturing the little bent strip that will act as a retainer for the piano hinges holding on to the cowl.


Then I had to start a dimpling spree dimpling every rivet attach and screw hole on the top panel skin and the little angles that will hold the actual panel in place.


Oh, and before the top skin was dimpled there was this ominous instruction telling me to work the front of the skin by hand to bend it down slightly so once screwed on it would tightly fit to the top firewall stiffener. I really did this, carefully pressing the front of the skin over the edge of my workbench, holding down the aft with my other hand.
It worked and gave the skin just a slight trend to bend down. I don't know if that is why it looks really good when I screwed it down on the plane.


Then I ran into a serious problem. Installing those angles on the top of the aft of the skin and riveting them on should be done while the skin was bent close to its final shape. I could rivet the nutplates onto the angles in the shop but then the final installation looked like I should do on the plane. With my work bench at its current height that would have been a hairy task and sounded like no fun and maybe even some messed up rivets.
The only safe way of doing it was to be inside the plane! Finally!!! The reason I was waiting for to actually sit in the plane!


Feels great! Roomy for one, that's for sure. Don't know about two big guys in there, though. Ah well, there's always a -10 I could build if I feel cramped, right?


Sitting in the plane wasn't enough. I even had to resort to desperate measures and swap back to the manual riveter as the pneumatic one was just to heavy to work upside down on this flimsy surface.


And there she is with the panel top skin on. Beautiful!


Now if I only had a SkyView on order to fill this void!

Well, and the SkyView is the reason why I cannot finish Section 29 at this point and why it is on halt now. The next steps would be to install the map box and the other panel elements. On the photos I've seen so far all 3 panel elements are changed from what I have, even the one that takes the map box. So, to not do unnecessary work, I will just stop here and declare the Fuselage Kit to be completed for now.

The next step would be either test fitting the wings in Section 30 or to start the wiring in Section 31. I think, I'll go with the latter and start to dig into the wiring. As my servos should soon be here, I can integrate their installation with the other wiring stuff.