Today I first began by loosing a lot of time installing the small angles I had fabricated last time. I made an error backdrilling the part to the longeron and had to refabricate the angles.



Then I cut the lower longeron to length an do the cut out per plans.



The longeron the gets twisted a bit and positionned on the fuselage skin, being careful it nest on the firewall weldment.
It's normal that the longeron is seen below the skin (it's below as the fuselage is still upside down).



Then the longeron gets drilled to the lower part of the weldment. Bolts will be used there, hence the bigger clecos.



Then the small gusset get fabricated, on the right the part before the cuts shown on the left side (the drilling has still to be done).



Here the part is positionned on the weldment. I have some egde distance issue with the last hole, I might have to redo it or add a rivet, I'm waiting for Vans' opinion.

The day begins with the drilling of two openings for the gear legs on the lower forward skin. There is a template in the plans which has to be drawn on the skin.



Then I installed the gear leg support on, here is a picture from inside. This will provide for some intersting work when installing the bolts during final assembly.



After a few tries, the openings are done to size, here is the result.



To strenghten the forward fuselage, some auxiliary longerons and bulkheads are to be installed. The first longeron gets installed diagonally, it has to be cut to correct length and the bakdrilled through the skin.



The next longerons get installed with the help of small clips. The clips are cut from aluminium angle, and all the sides have to be worked on, either cut or drilled.

First I fabricated the four small strips that will hold together the main bulkhead and the fuselage upper longeron, on the picture the two from the right side.



Then I rechecked the alignment of the firewall, the alignment of the weldments on the longeron and the distance from the main bulkhead. I had a small problem centering laterally the firewall, as I had drilled two holes a bit in a hurry. I moved the firewall (my plane will have two more rivets in this area), and drilled all the side skins.



Then I drilled the lower weldment, here is a picture from inside.

I did all the drillings in the forward fuselage : the rear to center fuse junction, the skin to bulheads holes and the outer rib holes (visible on the picture with all the copper clecos).



Then I drilled the armrest (a picture from inside).



I could not resist trying to position the firewall. The drilling of that part will be next.

Today I ended the drilling of the longerons. I begun by drilling the right lonngeron, then the longerons have to be cut to length (they are a bit too long on the forward side), then they are clamped to the skin and drilled. Some larger rivets will be used in the front holes.