Construction Log: Fuselage TOTAL TIME:
DATE DESCRIPTION OF WORK
TIME
02/18/2002
Ordered for March 1, 2002 delivery of XL Fuse.
03/01/2002
Fuselage is home! All I can say is wow that is a lot of rivets! (5000!!!)
03/13/2002
Built horiz. tail frame jigs and drilled angles to bottom of frames.
03/16/2002
Drilled stiffeners for bottom rear fuselage.
Drilled rear bottom skin to bottom skin.
Drilled HT frames to bottom skin assy.
Drilled bottom lower rudder hinge to bottom skin assy.
03/18/2002
Drilled bottom longerons to skin assy.
Joggled front two doublers.
03/23/2002
Spliced the two bottom longerons together.
03/23/2002
I have been sneaking into the shop on my way to work!
Drilled side skins to bottom longeron.
Drilled side stiffeners to side skins.
Couldn't help myself...stuck the bulkheads on and took pictures! Very cool.
04/07/2002
Drilled gussets to side skins.
Drilled side skins to front and rear HT frames.
Made the diagonal L angle that goes on the side skin between front
and back HT frames. Used levels and a square just to make sure everything
was in the right spot. Picture posted.
Made the top panel, but haven't attached it yet.
05/15/2002
Hard to keep up with the paperwork...
Got most of the firewall drilled up. It turns if you pitch 40 the
back L angles, things work out right on the front side stiffeners. Looks pretty good.
Not much but I added a couple pictures, that oughta count for something, shouldn't it?!?
06/15/2002
Hmmm...falling behind on logs again (go figure).
Closed the top of the "box" at the rear of the fuse.
Installed the rudder. Even waiting to attach the upper hinges on the rudder,
I still need a small shim for the upper fuse hinge. Looks pretty good though.
I still need to finish the rudder (gap seals, trim the leading edge, finish front
spar rivets, blah blah blah). I
also need to retro a position light into the tail. That way when I park it at an
unlighted grass runway, I can say, "yep, its got lights".
Put a couple more pictures out.
07/23/2002
Hmmm...falling behind on logs again (repeat as needed).
Firewall is nearly done.
The rear fuse is done and riveted.
Started designing dual controls, but don't tell anyone ;)
07/27/2002
Didn't do a whole lot, but it looks like it. Drilled up the 3/8" holes
to bolt the firewall onto the engine mount. Because of this, I was able
to mock assemble top longerons, floor panel, carry-through. Now its time
to take it back apart and actually build it this time.
04/13/2003
Can't believe I didn't build all winter, but hey, I learned to ski.
Installed center firewall stiffener.
Installed NLG gusset.
Bought a fly cutter and set it up for precise 2" holes. Waiting
until I get a 2"OD pipe to cut hole in firewall top stiffner, just to be sure.
Started laying out rivet lines in floor. Zenith has some NICE photo guides
published now complete with "Max Fwd Rudder Positions" with all the appropriate
mods listed.
Started NLG lower bearing support.
REALLY EXCITED to be building again.
04/15/2003
Finished NLG lower bearing.
Trimmed to fit the heel support, and the brake and rudder pedal suports.
04/16/2003
Finished the bungee pin hole in the center firewall stiffener.
04/17/2003
04/20/2003
Drilled up my floor, with exception of the center spar.
04/27/2003
What a crappy weekend. Problem after problem on my wing jigs. Some my
fault, others, well, probably my fault as well. The drawings/manuals call
out specific locations for fwd spar attach bolt holes. These set the correct
dihedrial in the jig. Well, as it turned out, my carry through does not
have the attach holes exactly where the dwgs call them out, so I am still
at a loss of how to correctly set dihedrial. Because these are only rear
spar location tools, it might not matter much, so I am not going to worry
until it is time to set that location.
05/09/2003
Fixed my wing jig problem. Drilled a sheet of lexan to my wing's
spar roots. I then used the lexan to drill the wing jig.
Did a bunch of misc. work, such as drill the carry through to floor,
drilled firewall to floor, drilled rudder pedals to floor...etc.
06/11/2003
Right fwd skin installed less top longeron, fwd doublers.
Left fwd skin installed less top longeron, spar uprights, fwd doublers.
Misc other work.
04/04/2004
Wow, these logs are hard to keep up to date.
Guesstimating 40 hours, but ??? not keep that much track these days.
04/07/2004
drilled seat supports to spar and gear carry thrus.
made front/rear controls bearings.
test fit controls.
04/14/2004
drilled flap actuator mount
riveted double to flange of seat back
04/14/2004
cut all the Ls for the armrest.
installed left side of armrest.
05/25/2004
Behind on logs again...
Picked up canopy from ZAC. FINALLY got to fly the XL. I was not disappointed.
Basically drilled the rest of the angles, supports, channels, etc. to fwd side skins.
Fit/drilled top longeron doubler.
Fab'd/installed canopy inside hinge.
Misc other stuff that I've probably forgot. Once again, guessing at time...
05/25/2004
Started install of rear top skin
06/06/2004
top rear skin drilled up.
shoulder belt attach installed.
aft bow (bulkhead #3) installed.
middle rear skin centerline attached, sides taped down. I have put the
middle skin under the rear skin. I plan on backdrilling from the outside in.
I just have to figure out a good way not to screw up B4 in the process.
The pictures are bad and make it look like a big mess, but it is actually going
together quite well.
06/13/2004
Ok, open my mouth I guess. Ran into some big problems around B2 hoop.
Basically, I got a good fit at the top on centerline, and at the sides at the
top longeron, but in between those points, you could stick you hand through
the gap between the skin and the B2 hoop. There is NO way that the skin could
be pulled that far. I ran across someone else's site that said ZAC actually
delivered some B2's that were bent wrong. Man, I hope that is the case. I've
got an email into ZAC, so I should know soon. Reguardless, the one I have wouldn't
work, so I tried bending to fit, but had only marginal sucess. Now that I have
been bending on it, it is now too short, so I will have to replace, even if it
was correct from ZAC. I might run out there and pick it up and see if they'll
give me a ride in the 701 just for the hell of it.
Other than that, the rear and middle top skins are on and fit well. Had
a bunch of help from the wife...and she is even aware of my quality assurance
program (you build on it, you fly in it).
06/19/2004
Well, the folks of ZAC answered my question with quick response. They got
my email on Monday, and by Wednesday, I was holding a replacement B2. Things
to note was that it was shipped with the correct part number, which was different
than the one I originally had. My original was a x-ref'd back part from
something else. (I bought my fuse' in March of 2002, so I doubt any of the newer
kits have this problem. The drawing dimmensions have even changed from my
original purchase and the latest and greatest.
Enough babbling. ZAC sent me a new part, and it fit beautifully. The pic
in Fuselage IV photos looks like it waved a bit, but that is just the camera
playing tricks with the fact that the skin is rough cut and its edge is nowhere
near straight yet. I am very pleased with the results.
Thanks for the help Nick!
07/11/2004
Did a ton of stuff that you'd never be able to tell at a glance.
Drilled longeron side splice
Finished drilling longerons, drilled up to size.
Finish trimmed top middle skin, including front.
Made top middle skin front edge molding out of a section of 1/4"OD 0.17"ID vinyl tubing.
Bunch of other little stuff.
07/18/2004
Did very little productive work, mostly around the fwd end of the top longerons.
Moved off table, which will help me get to places I couldn't before, but remember,
this thing has to be tore down AT LEAST one more time, probably more, and you can't
do that on sawhorses.
10/10/2004
LOTS of stuff (I've actually been working on it since 7/18, just not posting, sorry)
11/18/2004
Once again, another month or so between posts. Lots of stuff done...
Horizontal located and drilled to position.
Final trim on rear skin to horizontal, done with poster board templates. Turned out
real nice. I'll try to get some pictures of this posted soon.
Cable routing, rerouting, rerouting.
Dual Control installation.
Firewall gaskets (where NLG steering linkage pokes thru) made/installed.
Who know what all else, but it is making good progress now...just in time for winter.
12/12/2004
Built up the main landing gear.
01/02/2005
Installed the main landing gear, nose landing gear, plus misc other things.
Airplane rolled out of garage on its own feet for the first time today!
03/26/2005
All kinds of stuff...hard to keep up with these logs.
Biggest event was initial wing mate. Good new is rear attach tabs are
well located and will only require minimum if any shims.
08/05/2006
All kinds of stuff...hard to keep up with these logs (sound familiar).
Tail group all done and locked into place.
Rudder and elevator control cables built and routed.
Seats, seat back, console, controls, etc. done.
Lots of work on the canopy.
08/17/2006
Canopy drilled to frames/tubes.
Rails and flashing drilled up.
Canopy release installed (less cables).
