1091- Tailcone- p.10-22 step 1-3 & p.10-23 step 1-2

Tailcone- 4 hrs 48 mins (Tailcone 87:33, Empennage 263:05, Total 284:01)

Rivet count: 230 (Total 5,321)

This post is actually three days worth of work done a few weeks ago. I'm finally complete with pilot training!!!!!! so I'm catching up on administrative things such as updating this blog!!

In total, the top skin was attached and riveted to the stiffeners, longerons, and frames/bulkheads. That really sums it up! Some of the hardware was attached where the plans called for it. I noticed that I forgot to prime two pieces a few weeks back, so I am going to work ahead to chapter 13 of the wing spars and prime the two pieces along with those from the next chapter before jumping back and finishing up the tailcone with about an hour more of work. -M

This image is here for a question asked on vansairforce.com. Please ignore.

1090- Tailcone- p.10-21 step 1-5

Tailcone- 3 hrs 56 mins (Tailcone 82:45, Empennage 258:17, Total 279:13)
Rivet count: 203 (Total 5,091)

Famous last words indeed! Barely did anything this weekend since we spent Saturday in Huntsville, AL checking out space vehicles and rockets! We've actually got 3 nights worth of work here (Fri-Sun-Mon), even though last night barely counted with less than 30 minutes of work. We continue with assembly by riveting the nutplates to the bellcrank rib angles and then the angles to the bellcrank ribs. Then the ribs get cleco'd and riveted to the bottom skin and 1007 frame. 
We continue by riveting part of the longerons to the aft part of the side skins where they don't match with a skin. The aft deck gets cleco'd to the longerons as well as to the bulkheads and bracket/spacers. All of this is of course much easier said than done, particularly when some of the rivets have to be drilled out and re-done. We finished by riveting the 1009 frame (small piece) to the aft deck. We managed to place our 5,000th rivet today!!!
We'll continue tomorrow with the doubler. Lots of different sized rivets which means lots of adjustments and time consumption. However, once that is complete, we attach the aft top skin in place and start to rivet that! Then just a few more pieces in the forward part of the tailcone, and the tailcone is complete. -M