Zodie


Spent a lot of time leveling the Fuse. First the rear longerons. Then the gear channel. I then clecoed the firewall and installed it. Then shimmed and raised the front to make it level with the rear longerons. I used my laser level to make sure it was all correct. This didn't work as well as I hoped. I ended up moving it to a tripod.

Made sure that it was all the proper width and spacing.

I also dry fit the nose gear to check the fit of the bottom doubler.

I spent a lot of time trying to make everything level. I eventually moved the laser level to a tripod. This worked much better.

Now all I need to do is make sure everything is in relation to the plane of the level. The bubble tubes on the laser are not accurate enough. I ended up using a water level to set it up.

I have the sticks marked at the proper height and located at different parts. Just need to compare where the mark is in relation to the plane of the level. I also have a plum bob set up.

The level will rotate 90 degrees. You can see the red line on the center of the spar and the firewall. I also have it running with the plumb bob to make sure it is accurate. I spent a lot of time making sure it will be level.

I had to rebuild the wing jigs once. Put it all together and the spar needed shimmed about .032 to make the 81 degrees.

This is the underside of the aft spar. I lined up the end holes and drilled from underneath.

This is the seat back

Had some confusion with the spacing of the instrument panel. The new photo assembly guide calls out 28cm here but they must have changed the kit. I looked at the CD with the original assembly guide and there was no mention of this. Got to be careful with the different guidance and revisions. I called ZAC and they said that they made the change to give more room for the canopy. They suggested that I cut the ends of the panel and put an angle.

Here is the trimmed panel with the angel. I also have the 29 mm now.

First traced the side skins and then made the cuts. BE CAREFUL. I first had the gear channel out of level from all of the maneuvering from the side skins. I had to trim it a couple of times to get it square.

Here you can see the level on the gear channel and the interior.



I spent a lot of time making sure it was all level. Amazing how one bump will move everything. But it is all plumb and square.

With the wing jig installed I started dry fitting the rear wing supports

Did some trimming on the gussets. Then Drilled and clecoed

Well it was all going well till I realized that I had miss located the rear spar plate. On here you can see that it should be 50mm from the edge of the vert channel. See the dimension circled in the top left of the drawing. I located them 50 from the edge of the Rear Frame Channel. This is not the same. This resulted in about a 5 mm error.

Here you can see how the plate is situated. It is too far inboard. The holes do not line up. I also had the rear frame drilled and the only way to fix this is to move the plates outboard. I won't have edge distance with the channel if I do. SO>>> I ordered a new frame and vert supports. These are critical parts. I started out trying to rework. But it just isn't worth it.

I took the skin off to locate the spar support.

I clamped it all together and then drilled the holes. Then I made sure the position of the spar was correct. This worked very well on the Right side. Not so well on the left side. It is kind of tricky to get the location of the spar. I just traced it from the inside.

Here you can see the result of my misfortune. I have the cut out at the wrong angle and mislocated the holes in the top. Very frustrating day. Oh well. I ordered a new side skin. You know I tried a lot of ways to fix this but it just isn't worth it. I am glad I ordered new. I wish I had recognized this when I ordered the parts on the rear spar. Oh well the folks at ZAC were very helpful. I did this on a Monday. Ordered the parts that day and got the new ones on Thursday.

The right side worked out very nice.

I was kind of unsure how this would work. The tape worked like a champ.

I used had problems getting a good line so ended up using some tape with tic marks for spacing on the interior and drilled and clecoed. Worked well

Drilled the upper and firewall ones also. I needed some success.

Here is the new skin from ZAC. The cutout for the gear channel is fine. So I will transfer that over to the new skin. It is difficult to locate the cutout for the spar. With the skin on the wing jig can not be in place. BE careful before you cut. The big clue bird is that the angle of the cut should be 81 degrees from the top of the panel. If I had checked this first prior to cutting I would have caught the mistake. It worked fine on the other side. But you can see the problem here.

This is the new skin. Looks much better. I am glad I ordered it.

Before I went much further on the skins I wanted to finish the rear Spar assy. One more discovery. I had originally thought that the spar plate went on the rear of the wing jig. This was in error. It should be on the forward side. This caused the whole assy to move forward the thickness of the jig. This is also the thickness of the rear frame channel ( the new one I ordered).

When I had the new assy lined up I did not have good edge distance with the holes already drilled in the lower aft skin and the new location of the Channel. So I cut the old channel, which had the rivet pattern and spliced it to the new channel. This required a cut in the new channel. Here you can see the new assy. It actually worked well. I didn't need to transfer the hole pattern this way. Everything is nice and square now. The jig fits well.

I first lined up the plate with the vert channel and then drilled the assy. The assy guide does this differently and later in the build. I liked doing it here when the side skins were off. I was able to get at everything with the jig in place. Worked well.

With the rear spar assy all in place I was able to tie the front and rear skins together. This really stabilized the structure. Allowing me to work the front.

Got is all drilled and Clecoed. I am going to need some more clecos.
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