A Day Of R&R

It was a rainy morning at DOG Aviation, perfect for a little R&R … riveting and rain or retired and riveting. Either way, it means progress is being made on the RV-12.

The tail cone assembly plans call for riveting the center line first … this is where the left and right bottom skins overlap one another. The only exception is at the forward end of the tail cone no rivets are to be set within 7 inches of the forward edge … also no rivets are to be set at the far  aft holes because the aft bulkhead will be attached there later.

                                  Beginning the riveting of the left and right bottom skins to each other.

                                         Completed center row where the left and right bottom skins overlap.

Once the left and right bottom skins are riveted together the plans call for the three fuselage frames to get riveted onto the left and right bottom skins.

                                   Riveting the center F-1209 fuselage frame onto the left bottom skin.

Interestingly, the plans only call for the left and right lower skins to be riveted to the left and right bottom skins but NOT the fuselage frames at this time. Work began on this portion of the construction, however I got called off the project to tend to a computer problem before I could take a photo of the work in progress.