So the title of this section is long, as it should be. There is a lot going on in this section. Basically building up all the parts between the wing spar and the firewall and then attaching the mid-fuse to the fwd fuse.
First few steps in this chapter are building the FWD seat rails and the attach angle to the tunnel. I believe there is a slight difference between the F-1043C angle and what is depicted in the plans (plans show extra holes that aren’t in the actual part). Just ignore this and keep building. (At least that’s what I did!) Beyond that, this is an easy cleco parts per plans, final drill, countersink where needed, (prime if you want), then assemble.
The only suggestion I can provide at this stage is rivet the ribs together before you install the nutplates. I didn’t and it was a little more difficult to set the rivets to hold the ribs together. Ended up having to use a modified rivet set that was shaved down to get access to the factory head as the nutplates were in the way.
With the seat rail ribs assembled, you can then begin to assemble the jigsaw that is the FWD Fuselage Bulkhead sub-assembly. Lots of pieces bolted together with assorted nutplates and clecos. Honestly this was a little fun trying to put it together. Presented a little bit more of a mental on how everything goes together. Another item to note, the plans don’t tell you to do it but final drill all the screw holes on the F-1043D cover plate. The pre-punched holes are too small for the AN515-8R8 screws and they won’t thread in correctly.
I will say cutting the column control mount bracket was slightly scary. I always feel like I have to be so precise with things like this and I really won’t know if I really messed it up for quite a while. Fingers crossed that I was “close enough”.
Other than that, not too hard, just a lot of spacial thinking to get everything together. After building one side, the other goes together much faster!
Looking ahead I really need to get my mid-fuse bottom skin riveted on soon as that needs to be done before I try to attach it to the FWD fuse. Hopefully I can get that done somewhat soon. Also things are getting REALLY crowded in my garage now. I have been thinking I need to move my wings somewhere else, but need to work out the logistics.