A big working day at home, but only one hour in the workshop. I decided to begin tackling the crotch strap support. As I bought Hooker harnesses, there are a few alterations to be made. First the floor hole needs to be enlarged to allow for the buckle to pass through.






Then the bolting point needs to be displaced as the buckle would hit the support if the Vans location would be used. In the picture, the upper mark is the suggested location, the lower mark is where we will attach the strap.

Still working on the center fuselage, a lot of small tasks are to be done. First the installation and drilling of the baggage compartment side ribs.



The I backdrilled the seat side ribs. There aws also some fluting to be done before drilling all the ribs, the bulkheads and the skin. To do this, the ribs had to be taken of and installed a few times. On the picture, the side rib which has to be fluted to get the same curve as the skin.



Then I installed the forward part of the main bulkhead and the inner skins. On this part I still have to backdrill the main bulkhead and install the scrotch strap kit.

The session begins with the fabrication of some small parts : four spacers and four attach straps.



Then four seat ribs have to be modified. The big hole has to be cut a bit more to allow room for the control column. On the picture you can see the three steps : one rib as it comes from Vans, the second with a hole cut with the hole cutter and the third which is complete.



Then two ribs get modified with the installation of a small door to allow the installation of the control column. I'm surprised only two ribs have to be modified as the installation of the control column spans four ribs, I think I'll modify two more ribs to get better access.



Then the ribs are clecoed to the main bulkhead and to the seat bulkhead. The baggage ribs get clecoed to the seat bulkhead.



And to finish the day I cleco into position the center fuselage lower skin.

After having finished riveting the firewall, there was some time left to clean the shop and rummage through the parts to find those needed to assemble the center fuselage. In the center fuselage are located the baggage compartment and the seats.

Firewall riveting, this took quite longer than expected. The task is not that difficult but the firewall is a bit bulky and needs to be well secured during the riveting. In the end I'm satisfied with the result.






The firewall recess will only be riveted later as it allows access to the inner part of the firewall.