Aft Fuselage questions

[JohnR]

I clecoed my aft fuselage together today. Wow! Pretty cool to see it take shape so quickly after all the prep.

In doing so I ended up with a couple of questions.

The first one has to do with the rear tail cone. It appears that I need to bend it a fair amount in order to get it to line up properly with the skins. I have put a substantial amount of pressure on it and it just pops back to its original shape. I cna apply more pressure but thought I would see if anyone had any good suggestions on getting this correct.

Secondly, after getting everything clecoed together I put the plumbbob on it and it appears to be out of square by 1/32 or a little more on the front. Not over a 1/16 though. All of the holes line up good and I am afraid that trying ot fix it might cause bigger problems. Should I leave it or try to fix it?

Thanks,

 

[jmjula]

- A lot of people, including myself, rolled the tail cone a bit more before drilling. I duct taped a 1" dowel to each side, and rolled it like you do on the elevators. Even with that, it is a tough fit. You will end up drilling from the front towards the tail, and pull it together as you go.

- Don't worry too much about twisting now, this will be straightened out with the aft deck much later on, once it is riveted together. It doesn't hurt to keep it close while drilling/riveting, but the aft deck will lock the fuselage in place, and you will correct any twist before drilling it. This is done once you have most of the fuselage riveted together. I had 0.1-0.2 degrees of twist after riveting, before the aft deck. After the aft deck was installed, I have none.

A note about riveting the rear fuse: the side skins can be pretty easily back riveted by putting it on its side. This save me some time and allowed me to do those solo.