Right Skin Complete HOBBS 805.5 hrs

Through several somewhat short work sessions, I finally got the right foreward side skin riveted in place. Its a little slow going when you are riveting by yourself, so this skin took me longer to do than I expected. But except for the slow pace, it wasnt bad at all to do solo...no crazy reaching, grunting or groaning. And gosh, it is so cool to see it riveted. Its feeling more and more like an airplane every day now. I keep wondering when it will be ready for me to sit in it for the first time. After I riveted that first side skin I check the rigidity of the structure...wow, its plenty stiff already! The way these lightweight, flimsy aluminum parts come together to make a super rigid structure is so cool to the Engineer in me. Aircraft design is fascinating.

I have now moved on to the left side, got it dimpled, prepped, deburred and removed the blue plastic in preparation for riveting. I expect this one to go much faster than the right side, as with everything on this project...once you've done it once, the second time always goes so much smoother. Shoot, if I built another RV, I could probably have it flying in a year! ;) ok...maybe not.

Here you can see, I have the skin in place for a last fit-check. I wanted to make sure everything was accounted for, things that would be difficult or impossible to do after the skin was in place...holes for rudder cables...access holes for fuel lines...all holes dimpled that need it...etc. After this was complete, I pulled it off...mixed up a batch of ProSeal, scuffed and cleaned the appropriate surfaces and then applied it to all overlapping seams and then re cleco-ed it in place. As I said, it took a few work sessions to get all the riveting done.

Here is a shot of it just about 98% complete. Isnt that 'purdy'?? A nice smooth, riveted skin is oh so satisfying. Dont forget to leave some of the holes open for the overlapping top skins and also hinge attach areas for the engine cowl, which I'll attend to later.

I started on the left side as shown here. Rivet this stiffener piece as called out in the plans. It says to leave the two bottom holes open for pop rivets...I only see the need to leave one open...not two, the other one can take a solid rivet. Doing these rivets at this stage does two things, #1-you cant get to the back side of these rivets once the skin is in place and #2, it holds it in place so you can install it much easier.

And a last parting shot. I have the left skin cleco-ed on for a test fit. It all looks good, next work session I will start riveting this bad boy in place!