Today Teri met me at the hangar and we put the two fuselage halves back together.
A little bit of study of the plans and the video and I convinced myself it was ok to rivet most of the remaining top and bottom skin rivets.
Then it was time to start riveting the two halves together – no going back from here! Well, I suppose I could unrivet it if needs be but I would probably rather set fire to it.
Here’s a view from underneath, always fun to rivet upside down.
Here is the completed passenger side
Note the silver clecos. During the riveting I was reminded that the side channels have a cover that should probably be on already. So I found them and quickly realised that one of the columns of rivets on the gusset share rivets with the cover. It was too late for the pilot side but not too late for the pax side, so the pax side is clecoed in place. I will unrivet the pilot side.
With that done I clecoed the cabin frame in place. I had hoped to rivet it too today but I never expected it to take three hours to rivet the fuselage together. Today was my 300th hour on the build, so it seems like a fitting milestone.
