I’ve started using Trello to keep track of the miscellaneous tasks I need to complete. At this point in the build, I don’t have a lot of structural elements remaining other than the bottom wing skins, the front upper fuselage skin, and the canopy. All of the major body parts for the plane are compete. If I wanted to, I could wheel this puppy into the middle of the hangar, put the already drilled gear legs on, attach the wings and the empennage and have something that actually resembles a plane. But, I’m not going to do that just yet. There is still a ton of work, and a lot of dependencies. Right now I have two remaining fuselage projects. First I need to get the majority of the interior painted. This needs to be done before I install the forward fuselage upper skin. Next, I need to install that skin, and then as the spring time is rolling around, it will be time to work on the canopy. With that in mind, there was only one significant portion of the cockpit that had not yet been riveted, and thats the rear seat back. So, that brings us to today.

The Show Planes fastback kit includes a new seat top for the rear passenger made from fiberglass. It looks much better than the stock metal seat back provided by Van’s. However, there are, as I discovered, some symmetry issues with the fiberglass. The first step is fitting the fiberglass into the opening and adjust the height. In order to do this you’ll need to trim the fiberglass just slightly at the corners (marked below).

Here you can see I trimmed the part twice. Once to intersect with the rear seat back, and again to fit between the cockpit rails.

I carefully adjusted the fit of the seat back in terms of height so as to not unduly rub the edges of the baggage compartment. I marked the mating points for reference and began drilling the seat back top. This is where I noticed my first asymmetry. The curve on the right side was higher than the left side. I didn’t notice by looking from the front, but rather by examining the rivet line in the rear. I went over to my buddy Mike’s hangar to see if he could notice. He was able to notice the difference when I held it to him straight on and told him to look for something off. With him able to notice the error, I resolved to fix it.

But wait. As I started to examine the part more carefully, I realized this wasn’t the only thing that was off. The left curve and the right curve don’t match. That is the left curve extends further in than the right. (You can see it slightly in the photo below). Additionally, the center of the raised center plane is actually offset to the right (shown by the arrow). These two things exaggerate the discrepancy. What to do? Well, I can tell you, I’m not intending to compete this plane for Oshkosh Grand Champion. And while I will fix anything that is even remotely structural all day, I’m not as keen to fix hardly noticeable cosmetic defects! As I really worked on trimming the part to fit, I noticed other discrepancies. Many of the measurements were not exactly the same from side to side.

What I wound up doing is this. I made darn sure the curves of both sides, both in height and distance are symmetrical, and I left it at that. If you look directly at the part, you can notice a few of the symmetry issues. Having show it to a couple people, most people notice the center offset, not the curves. Since the center offset is an issue with the part, and not my workmanship, it doesn’t bother me as much. Furthermore, I firmly believe no-one will ever notice this small asymmetry unless they 1) know about, and 2) look at it fairly straight on.

Here is the final part after all trimming and edge clean up.

And here it is installed. Can you see an issue?

I had to have some fun so I put my seat cushions in, and took a selfie. 

Two other small projects today. First I prepped the pilot’s air vent for attachment. I’m going to attach with proseal and two rivets. One fore and one aft. I scuffed and cleaned both surfaces and then primed the inside of the vent. Not pictured, but I also applied a second coat of proseal to my static vents. I’m extremely confident that those will neither leak, nor come loose!

On a side note, my buddy Mike recently got wifi is his hangar. Not to be outdone, I had to follow suit. Mike was nice enough to lend a hand, and we installed the Ubiquiti locoM2. (www.ubnt.com/products)

I placed it as discreetly as possible.

It was pouring rain, so I added a makeshift cover (its meant for outdoors, but I figured keeping the flood off the room from running down the device couldn’t hurt) I’ll put a more permanent solution in place soon.

Finally, the test. 18.83 Mbps! Thats awesome! The next project will be an arduino powered humidity and temperature sensor that relays the data to me on my iPhone!

Long session in the shop today, but it should be a fairly short post. My buddy Jack came over to help me with the riveting of the turtledeck to the fuselage. I was crammed inside on the bucking bar while Jack had the rivet gun. It was slow going at times, and might uncomfortable, but we got it done. The rivets came out ok. There are a few areas where the intersections look a little wavy, but its only cosmetic and can be easily fixed when I go to paint.

Here’s a picture inside looking up a the completed rear shoulder harness attachment points.  

We also installed three clips for holding the tubing from the static ports.

Here’s the completed turtledeck. The legs belong to Jack.   

Next I turned my attention back to the passage of the rudder cable through the center section of the fuselage where the spars are inserted. Unfortunately, there is not enough room to drill the hole from the aft position. I will need to drill both coming from the front side.

I don’t have a 5/8 inch bit, so I’ll have to return to this when I get one.   

John Raffensparger had a good idea for my tail inserts. Drill a few holes in them to act as handles for putting them in. I also trimmed a couple corners again to make removal and insertion easier.

I match drilled the rear battery tray. After doing some research, and crunching some numbers, I’ve decided to put my battery in the back. With an IO-360, constant speed prop, and a pilot who only weighs 135lbs, a little more weight in the tail will be a welcome addition.   

Quick priming job for the battery tray. There are some nut plates that go on the aft side of the tray, and I cannot for the life of me determine what their purpose is.

I received my resupply from Aircraft Spruce. I was tired of being a few rivets shy on things, so anything that looked like it needed a top up, got a minimum order. Even if I have tons left over, thats okay, as I know I’ll find uses for them over the years. 

I also purchased some ignition open end wrenches, flexible socket extensions, and dremel sanding bits from Amazon. The open end wrenches have one side that is offset almost 90 degrees and will be perfect for a few tight spaces.

Session time: 8.0 hours

The Showplanes Fastback is slightly higher than stock at the intersection of the turtle deck and the vertical stabilizer. As a result, the front of the vertical stabilizer must be trimmed to allow sufficient clearance. 175 degrees to be exact. I bought a protractor on my way to the shop today, and presto here’s the result. Before this photo was even taken, I removed all the appropriate rivets. 

As you can see, this doesn’t allow the existing rivet holes to be placed nicely in the new layout. The new line is close to the second hole, and essentially bisects the next two. I gave careful consideration to how I should approach this problem. Online I found a few pictures, but nothing with enough detail. I found one builder who build a new rib. I briefly considered doing this as well. Getting the existing rib to fit, turns out to be a challenge.
  

Next, nothing to do but start the cut!

I really didn’t want to have any chance to harm the front spar so I protected it with some scrap aluminum I had laying around.   

Here’s the part that has only one photo, but took a ton of time!! Fitting that rib into position. I wound up fluting the nose and redoing some of the flange bends to narrow the nose of the rib down. I also redid the rear flange bend to pull the entire rib aft. This is a better solution (in my mind) than creating a new rib from scratch (which for me, is something I’ve never done).   

Here’s a good picture of where the previous rivet holes are after the cut. Not optimal. If I keep the same holes in the rib, there will likely be some of these that are very close together, especially those closes to the spar. I measured, and the aft most rivet (not in the spar) would almost touch one another. That won’t do!

The best solution I came up with was to create three new rivet locations aft. You can see them marked here. I was able to keep approximately the same spacing, and ensure that there was ample edge distance for every new hole.   

As for the old holes, I flattened them, and made sure they were as smooth as possible. They each have a firm new rivet on either side of them, which according to the acceptable methods of aircraft repair is the appropriate method.

I filled in the holes with a little JB Weld. Not for strength, but to build the primer / pain on to later.

Here’s a good picture of the end result. I’ve tried to diagram where the original holes are in the rib, and where the new ones are. The original holes in the skin are fairly obvious.   

Apparently I missed the note to leave these spots empty for the fairing. I did the same thing on the elevator. Man, what a newb I was then!

Next, I pulled the horizontal stab down, and removed the elevators. (They were just placed there temporarily for storage). I’m considering taking care of Service Bulletin 14-01-31 before installing the empennage. This is a bear of a project, so I’m not convinced yet. It isn’t required unless cracks form in the spar. Until such time the only requirement is yearly inspection. However, this project will not become easier after installation.   

I do not have the required relief notches. Upon review you can see them in the drawings, but there are no reference to them in the instructions.

Again with the fairings!  

Session time: 7 hours