Building the Fuselage

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This is the welded steel cage that was built at the
factory, and shipped as you see it.

Once the cage was hung properly, the fuselage
shell halves were aligned and attaching them to
the cage can begin.

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The fiberglass shells get aligned with a fuselage
alignment jig that I rented from the kit manufacturer.
Then the shell halves get duct taped together all
along the upper and lower seams to keep them in
proper alignment until the fIrst set of attach bolts
get installed, then the seam can be fiberglassed.

Once the seams are fiberglassed, the
structural attach brackets get installed in several locations.

Cage_to_Fuelsage_Brackets_small.JPG (19783 bytes)

Antenna_In_Vertical_Stab_small.JPG (15721 bytes)

Before the vertical stabilizer seam was closed up,
I designed, tested, and installed a 3 element fan
dipole for the COMM antenna, which will operate from 118-136 Mhz.

The next part was fairly challenging as I needed to slide
quite a ways into the aft part of the fuselage, where it gets narrow,
and fiberglass several bulkheads into position that will hold the vertical
stabilizer straight, and give structural support to the fuselage.

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Roland_Inside_Fuselage_small.JPG (9328 bytes)

With such a tight fit for me, and the short working
time of the fiberglass resin, it was a challenge
trying to move around and get this installed properly.

One of the next steps is to install the rudder hardware
and fit and trim for proper travel of the rudder.

Rudder_In_Position_small.JPG (10528 bytes)