The forward fuselage has a lot of structure that will support a very important piece of my body:  my butt!  I am finding that it’s critical to follow the plans step by step and not jump ahead to what you logically know is coming next.  Plans are there for a reason, and there’s always a got ya  if you don’t follow the steps.  Fortunately, I didn’t have any issues with this section and pieces easily came together.

I asked a favor from the sheet metal shop at work and a metal tech went above and beyond letting me use the industrial band saw and cleaned up my cut with the mill on the control stick mount.  Really a work of art and now it looks like a professional cut piece.  Even though it will never be seen, it makes me feel good knowing it was done right!  I finished sealing the firewall with RTV using a pastry bag type applicator and a sandwich bag.   Worked like a charm.  While fitting the tunnel walls to the bottom skin, I discovered that the three nut plates were installed on the wrong side.   So I fixed those as well.

By the end of it, the forward fuselage and mid fuse sections were ready to mate together.   I really struggled getting the bolts into the spars as they are an extremely tight fit.   This was a case of not using a big enough hammer.  I started with a rubber mallet and quickly switched to my traditional hammer.  It got the job done and before I knew it, I was standing back admiring a very big assembly!Alas, as everything in building an airplane, this was only a tease since it all had to come apart for the typical deburr and prep for final assembly.  It doesn’t look like a lot, but it took most of an evening just to prep all the parts and prime them.  It’s certainly my least favorite part of the project, but a necessary evil.  Next up will be assembly and clearing off a workbench!