Total build time: 166 Hours.
The aft fuselage tail cone box is complete, but with skins on the left, right, and bottom, it now needs a top! The top is called the turtledeck, as it resembles a curved turtle shell covering (I presume.) Parts layout:
This next bit was to bend the turtledeck into place on top of the tail cone box, and this required a bit of thinking and patience… with Mom and Bill gone, I had to figure out how to do this one on my own… the solution ended up being this: very carefully….
Ok that’s not going to work, lets try something else… Magic!
Adding sliding feet to my workbench let me slide the bench around next to the lower aft fuselage as I worked the turtledeck into place.
Aha… GRAVITY! Now what…
I ran a 2×4 under the spine and supported it with straps to hold it up and use gravity to my advantage.
Darn I thought I had it… this is going to take some more tweaking… and more straps!
AHA! A triangle shape of support to support a triangle-ish structure. Press on!
Left side secured!
SO CLOSE!
SUCCESS! Now come the formers, the internal supports that will hold the shape of the turtledeck.
Bust out that #30 drill bit and go to town!
That’s a lot of holes (there are lots more inside) that are going to need deburring….
Ryan,
I notice that you installed the turtle deck and still with no formers inside, do you have to get underneath and work from there to install the formers?
AL Roberts
Yes I did a lot of the former work from inside the fuselage.