Starting on the Fuselage!
Every build has to begin somewhere...
With the fuselage level, construction could begin!
There certainly is no easing into the construction of the fuselage...
Technically, the first step is to attach the wiring ducts; however, the firewall, gear bulkhead, keel, and canard bulkhead all align the proper routing of the wiring ducts. These assemblies are also all the main structural components of the fuselage; therefore, this was going to take a lot of time...
The first step was easy however.
Simply cleco the firewall in place, using factory drilled holes in the firewall and fuselage.
No Problems there
Next, the wiring ducts, gear bulkhead, keel and canard bulkhead are set in approximate place.
A nice center line down the fuselage makes placing the keel easy.
Once the keel was exactly where it goes, I put a couple dry wall screw through it down into the wood carriage beneath.
For a minute, it looks like things are progressing rapidly...
First Problem.
The instructions state that the exact location of the gear bulkhead is determined by the Gear Pockets, which are sandwiched between the firewall and gear bulkheads. SOUNDS EASY... After a couple hours frantically searching and rearranging ANYWHERE the gear pockets could possibly be; I can't find them! I then spend a couple hours on the VOBA forum, and can't find anything about them! With the time difference from Hawaii to Florida, I have to call Chad, at Velocity by 9am, well, its past 9am already, and the next morning I had plans, so two days later I finally get to call Velocity.
I must say this call to Velocity was very disheartening and frustrating...
I tell Chad I can't find the gear pockets ANYWHERE, and that I've searched for hours and completely rearranged my storage and work areas looking. He immediately knows I'm building an SE with retracts; why? Because he stopped supplying the gear pockets in those kits, because the mold is bad and they don't fit right. He then gives me the proper location of the gear bulkhead and says he will send the bad gear pockets and the instructions for making my own.
WTF, Velocity!!!
If you don't include the part, at least say you aren't and include the "old" instructions from the start! I am actually speechless at how unprofessional, lazy, and general DICKHEADEDNESS it is to intentionally not include a part without any explanation. It would have taken Chad all of 5 minutes to have included the a quick note along with the "old" instruction pages from the start, to save me 4 hours of searching and researching for a part which doesn't exist. Not to mention, he still had to spend those 5 minutes anyway, and now add shipping them to Hawaii. Wow, step 2 of building and its already impossible to have finished this kit as delivered. Honestly, my spirits are pretty low at this point, but "one foot in front of the other" and keep marching. Just gotta keep the end benefit in mind...
Ok, the top of the gear bulkhead needs to be 9 1/4 to 9 1/2" and the bottom 7 1/4 to 7 1/2", from the firewall. The instructions do say the inner foam will need to be notched to fit, so we appear to be back on track.
Need to push the gear bulkhead forward about an inch into the foam.
I traced a line showing where to cut out the foam.
My cut line, where I'm about to start cutting.
The inner fiberglass was tough, but the utility knife made quick work of it.
Right side inner fiberglass and foam trimmed!
A few trims and soon it was properly fitted.
Problem 2:
Things won't line up where they are supposed to. The wiring ducts are not allowing the gear bulkhead to fully seat. Something isn't lined up right...
The wiring ducts are too far out, to fit the alignment of the gap in the gear bulkhead.
The real problem is that the gear bulkhead won't full sit down to the fuselage, where it needs to be attached.
My first solution is to cut out "ramps" in the foam to allow the wiring ducts to fit lower into the fuselage.
The foam ramps fix the right wiring duct, but the left duct can't bend enough to take full advantage of the ramp. Therefore, I go back and start double checking EVERYTHING. Is that line really the center of the fuselage? Yes. Recheck the canard bulkhead is perfectly aligned with the firewall and level? Was good, now perfect. Is the keel placed correctly? Slight canard bulkhead alignment meant this need slight adjustment too. Everything is as perfect as I can get it. STILL WON'T FIT!
Ok, lets "find the difference", at this point I'm confident I have done everything correctly, but lets see whats is "different". I notice the left wiring duct (the one with the problem), is taking a farther out path down the fuselage, than the right one. Physically it is visibly up on the side of the wall, while the right one is is more in the corner of the wall and floor. Why? Either the keel is not centered, or the right wiring duct is farther from the keel. I measure the distance from the keel to the walls and everything is good. Sure enough, the wiring duct is farther from the keel, all along the route. In fact, the wiring duct is farther from the keel, right where it connects to the keel??? So, I pull the keel out and start measuring... Well, shit! All this chasing of a problem, and the keel extends about 1/2" farther to the left, than the right. Doesn't sound like much, but extrapolate that out the distance of the fuselage, and things don't fit. The instructions said the keel was what aligned the wiring duct; therefore, the construction of the keel should be to a high enough accuracy to be used to align the construction of the plane. Unfortunately, not.
I trimmed the keel down to equal the other side.
Amazing, after trimming the keel, the wiring ducts run almost identically down the fuselage!
Problem 2 fixed!
Moving forward...
First step, cleco, then pop-rivet the wiring ducts in place. A couple pop-rivets didn't catch right, but no major problems. I never thought of using rivets on fiberglass before, but it worked.
Wiring ducts all clecoed in place. I am really starting to love clecos!
Right side wiring duct riveted down.
And done!
BTW, I'm really loving those work lights I put in. It felt like overkill at the time, but the VOBA forum members said I would really appreciate the light, and I do!
It has been WAY longer than expected, but everything is clecoed in place, and the wiring ducts are permanently installed. Time for a Pina Colada... Previous disheartedness gone, now I'm excited to be making progress again!
Then on to installing the bulkheads... (After getting further in the build, I HIGHLY recommend completely installing the front gear doors, BEFORE installing the canard bulkhead)