SECTION 32: TAILCONE ATTACHMENT

Page 32-4

• When to dimple the holes marked in red? Answer: Page 32-5, step 3: Dimple all skins common to the F-1006 A, B & D bulkheads. In this case, it is the F-1006A bulkhead.
• Countersinking the side skins: The three holes on the left side skin located rear of the baggage door top need to be flush plus 7 clicks to accommodate a dimpled skin on top of them, however the holes above the baggage door need to dimpled flush since nothing goes on top.

Hints

• Stack at floor joint from bottom to top:
  • fuse skin (F-1077)
  • tailcone skin (F-1078)
  • bulkhead (F-1006B)
  • rib tabs (e.g. F-1019-R)
• Use plastic wedges to guide the tailcone bottom skin to go above (inside) the fuselage bottom skin, e.g. at Amazon
• Use two thin strips of aluminum (3/4 inch wide) in the bottom corner sections to guide the tabs of the tailcone to go inside the fuselage skin.
• Use an inflated 20 inch truck inner tube underneath the fuselage center to lift the fuselage slightly, allowing a swivel motion within the fuselage cradle constraints e.g. at Amazon
• This is going to be the first section where you will be happy to have a creeper to get underneath the fuselage, e.g. this one at HF.
• Throughout the build, a "pallet stacker" / manual forklift comes in handy. Shown here to raise the tailcone to be level with the fuselage. They ran around $1,000 new on ebay in 2020 but keep their value and allow you to unload the kits from the truck which makes the delivery non-residential thus saving money each time. They can also act as an engine hoist as you can lift the fork 6 feet and hang the engine from a fork. When not in use, they make an adjustable work bench.