Down-low riveting
Julie was nice enough to jump up after breakfast and help with some riveting, all of which happened to be under the fuselage. We riveted in the floor stiffeners, this time in the right direction. We also got to the COM antenna doublers. And finally finished the riveting on the pitch servo mounting bracket. It all went very smoothly. It’s great to have an experienced riveter around.
Since the doublers were in place, I decided to mount the COM antennas. Looks great except for one minor problem. I didn’t have long enough screws. I added those to the perpetual list. Meanwhile, I’ll leave them clecoed in place. One’s for the GNS-430 and one’s for the SL-40. It’s a little bit of a drag (literally) having two antennas out in the wind, but I’m willing to pay that price to have two good radios. Too many times I’ve heard on the radio “Experiment… shh… shh… two… shh… shh… turning… shh…”. I want to hear and be heard.
Later in the day I started permanently riveting the subpanel structure together. I started with the subpanel ribs to firewall. I realized this was going to be some tough riveting because the engine mount is in the way, so that’s where I started. I back riveted with a bucking bar on the front side. It was really tricky as the firewall is slick and the rivet gun is pretty wiley. I had to drill out and re-do a few of them. And then wouldn’t you know the stupid bucking bar slipped on one of the rivets and I got a little bit of a bump. Oh well. I tried hammering it out a little bit, but it is what it is. Good thing I didn’t bother polishing the firewall.