Messed up 705 bulkhead!

[dwilson]

Hi all,
I am very frustrated and blue!

Got to thinking about an extra hole I put through the 705 bulkhead for some extra wiring to the back of my 9A.
The 705 is the bulkhead that the aft wing attachments bolt to and I drilled a 3/4 inch hole through it just outside of the mid seat belt attach point on the pilots side. It is a quick build and I did is sort of blind.

Got to thinking about it this AM at 3:30. Began to wonder if it was such a good idea and where the hole actually went through.

Looked closely with a mirror and sure enough the hole is right against the bottom skin!

OK I know I deserve a Darwin award. Has anyone else "had a friend" who might have pulled a similar stupid stunt, and how did you (er- -- they) fix it?

I will be contacting vans engineering on Monday, but would appreciate any input anyone might have.

Duane

[Paul Eastham]

You need to talk to Van's, and hopefully send them a picture.

For what it's worth, the fuel tank ribs have big holes right against the flanges like that so it's not *necessarily* the end of the world.

[jlfernan]

Whatever happened with this?

[dwilson]

Guess I forgot to tell everyone how I resolved this one.

I finally drilled all the blind rivets and pulled the floor panel and looked at the actual position of the hole.

The hole was not through the load bearing structure, but went through the thin metal just above it. I e-mailed Vans and they said that they thought there would be no problem with that hole in that location.


Riveted the floor panel back on and kept building. Now I have 65 hours on the plane and all is well.


Duane