Forward fuselage^2h

In the last few days, I switched to working on the upper forward fuselage part.

First, I machined the F-7108B angle from a stock AA6-125x3/4x3/4 angle. One leg needed to be trimmed to allow the other leg to be bent at an angle.

I didn't take a lot of photos, but the rest of the process was to fit various ribs and the skin together and make sure everything aligns as it should.

There were no holes for the central F-7108 rib in the firewall. This is likely because the firewall is shared between tip-up and slider canopy configurations, which have slightly different structures.

The plans and manual provided limited information about how to locate these holes, but the isometric projection shows 6 holes there (versus 5 for the other two ribs). I located the horizontal position for the holes based on the holes in the top skin, essentially extending the line of the holes to the firewall. For the vertical position, I estimated the edges of the flange and positioned the holes at an appropriate distance from them.

Then I used a rivet fan to drill the remaining 4 holes.

And this is the top skin clecoed to the structure.