captainron
Well Known Member
Does anyone recognize this part? It is F-712, the rear bulkhead in the fuselage.
It was removed (no small feat) in order to locate and attach the beautiful bare-metal tailwheel mounting bracket,
and also to try to get the aft fuselage skins to fit somewhere close to what the designer had in mind. The side with the clecos is the aft-facing side, so you would think that the flanges would be bent to accomodate the taper of the fuselage. You would be wrong in assuming this!
I have to think that the builders take these parts as recieved from Vans, and just rivet them together with no adjustments. The next photo is of the fuselage in the area of F-711, the next bulkhead forward. It is installed in the same manner producing these results:
This is not quite as bad as it looks; the light makes the reflections look like huge dents. The F-712 bulkhead should have both flanges bent to follow the tapers of the fuselage here, but this is how they chose to build it:
As I'm writing this, I'm awaiting the delivery of Van's special tool to re-work the ski-jumps on the QB wing trailing edges. They asked if I would kindly return it as soon as I'm done so they can get it right out to the next lucky builder.
I hope Vans reads these posts!
It was removed (no small feat) in order to locate and attach the beautiful bare-metal tailwheel mounting bracket,
and also to try to get the aft fuselage skins to fit somewhere close to what the designer had in mind. The side with the clecos is the aft-facing side, so you would think that the flanges would be bent to accomodate the taper of the fuselage. You would be wrong in assuming this!
I have to think that the builders take these parts as recieved from Vans, and just rivet them together with no adjustments. The next photo is of the fuselage in the area of F-711, the next bulkhead forward. It is installed in the same manner producing these results:
This is not quite as bad as it looks; the light makes the reflections look like huge dents. The F-712 bulkhead should have both flanges bent to follow the tapers of the fuselage here, but this is how they chose to build it:
As I'm writing this, I'm awaiting the delivery of Van's special tool to re-work the ski-jumps on the QB wing trailing edges. They asked if I would kindly return it as soon as I'm done so they can get it right out to the next lucky builder.
I hope Vans reads these posts!
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