8/10/2006
Busy day. I riveted the instrument panel parts together and then cleco'ed them into the fuselage. I riveted the top row of rivets that bind the landing gear boxes to the F-887 longerons.
I finished making the ring for the NACA scoop. The purpose of the ring is that it provides something hard for the rivets to grab onto when mounting it to the fuselage. The instructions allow you to simply glue it into place with tank sealant but I can't see how this can be very durable.
Installing the scoop isn't exactly brain surgery but I nevertheless took several pictures shown below.
After finishing and fitting the ring, I marked a centerline on it and rivet locations about 1" apart. I then drilled the ring and the plastic scoop. I taped the scoop into position and then back drilled through the skin though the hole locations in the scoop.
I then removed the ring and mounted it in the front of the skin so that I could drill the front hole which is blocked by the tube attach point. Then deburred, set the rivets and primed it all from the inside. I used ugly gray since I plan to paint over the whole thing in a few days.
