I got started tonight by fabricating the spacers that sit under the aft deck.  Here is the one that sits on top of F-710.

And here is the slightly more complex one that sits on top of F-711.  After both were fabricated, I stuck them down with carpet tape, replaced the aft deck, and match drilled them and the bulkhead angles.

Next up, I but out the pieces for the elevator bellcrank and scotchbrited everything smooth.  I then laid out for and drilled the hole used by the autopilot pitch servo pushrod bolt.  Finally, I reamed all the holes for AN3 bolts.

Now that the position of the two ribs holding the elevator bellcrank are fixed, I match drilled and riveted the hole that ties the two angles together.

I then fabricated the two spacers that sit on either side of the elevator bellcrank bearing.  An AN4 bolt runs through these to tie the two ribs together.

Finally, I clecoed on the bulkhead gussets.  I don’t want to match drill these to the longerons yet since the bulkheads are pretty flexible at this point and it would be easy to get them in the wrong spot which would throw off the hole alignment with the top skin.

We were busy most of the day at a cub scout event with my son, but I managed to put a couple of hours in this evening.  I got started by fluting all of the bulkheads and making sure their flanges would lie flush with the skins.  I then temporarily attached the rear top skin to mark a few holes that are not predrilled.

The bottom three holes on F-709 on each side are not drilled.  I marked their position through the holes on the skin so that I can determine where to flute.  You can see that this area will need some significant fluting.

I then trimmed and fit the stiffeners and then put on the forward skin.  One final rib is inserted on the top skin between F-706 and F-707 as well as a gusset plate (where the numbers 479 are visible).

Finally, I match drilled the skins to the bulkheads and stiffeners.

Now that the skins were in place, I needed to drill the bulkhead gussets to the longerons.  Instead of peeling back the skins, I just climbed back into the tailcone and drilled the gussets in place.  For the F-706 bulkhead, I clamped a straightedge across the opening to ensure the gussets hold the two sides of the bulkhead perfectly in line with each other.

Finally, I clecoed the baggage floor back in place.

…and then clecoed and clamped the lower back wall of the baggage compartment in place.

I fit and drilled the lower portion of the rear baggage wall.  The top portion needs a radius cut in it.  After measuring for the center, I taped one of my sharpie pens to an old compass and adjusted it to 8.5″ and marked the cut.  I then used some tin snips and a vixen file to trim to the line.

After laying out for the holes, I matched drilled it to the F-706 bulkhead.  It’s unfortunate that the radius of the baggage wall doesn’t match the radius of the bulkhead, but this is what the plans specify.

All of the holes need to be drilled for nutplates.

After deburring and dimpling the bulkhead, I dimpled the nutplates (the bulkhead is only 0.024″, so I didn’t want to countersink for NAS1097 rivets).  I then installed all of the nutplates that mount directly in the bulkhead.  I’m not installing the ones that also rivet to the baggage floor since I’m not ready to rivet that in yet.

The F-728 rib needs several nutplates where the wall attaches.  Since this is 0.040″, I countersunk for NAS1097AD4 rivets.