I started tonight by laying out the hole in F-757 for the tip-up latch mechanism.
After drilling and filing for about 15 minutes, I had a nice square hole with radiused corners. I fit it along with aft canopy deck and match drilled it to the F-705 channel.
After clamping it in place, I then match drilled it to the longeron and laid out and drilled three additional holes in the aft end. I started working on the left side, but it was making too much noise and keeping our son awake.
I went ahead and torqued down the #10 screws in the tank attach brackets.
I also fit and match drilled the F-709 bulkhead.
Finally, I fit the F-695 gussets that tie the upper longerons and engine mount to the firewall stiffener. The forward edge of these needs to be filed to be parallel with the firewall when the outside edge is flush with the apex of the longeron. The forward edge also needs a little bend up to lay flat against the stiffener.
After determining where the aft end of the engine mount is, I laid out 10 holes forward of this point and four holes after. This resulted in slightly different spacing than called for in the plans. I had basically 1/2″ between the forward 10 holes, but only 13/32″ between the aft four. This ensured adequate edge distance all around. I also laid out for 5 holes along the front edge. I then drilled these out to #40.
I then clamped the two gussets together and transferred the holes to the other one.
After clamping the gussets securely in place, I match drilled the longerons, engine mounts, and firewall stiffeners to #40 and then enlarged the holes to #30.
Here are the completed gussets. I’m going to wait to prime and install these until I have a sufficiently large pile of parts to prime.
