Step 1.    Separate the small strip from the F-1074 forward top skin and finish the edges of both. 

03/25/06 - 1 hour    

Step 2.   Amuse yourself.  Flip the Tailcone over all on your lonesome.  Have it slide off the sawhorses.  Very entertaining.  Then, when you're done amusing yourself, cleco the F-1009 into place and drill out the #30 holes in common with the F-1014.  You'll need the 12" #30 bit to get to the holes on the outside.  Not enough clearance near the longerons for the drill. 

03/26/06 - 20 minutes     Long 12" #30 bit

Step 3.  Riddle me this.  What does the word "heavily" mean?  When the instructions say to flute the tabs with 2 holes "heavily," does it mean more than once, does it mean with lots of "weight" on the fluting tool, or does it mean put more pressure (thus making a deeper flute) than normal?  I chose the last one and made one deep flute per tab, except for the really long 2-hole tabs.  There I put 2 flutes.  DON'T do this.  It screwed up the alignment some.  Not enough that I have to do much other than take the flute out a little, but just one flute per tab, thank you.  Deep.  Heavy.  Oh, and make sure the bulgy side of the flute is pointed inside the plane.  Not towards the skins. 

03/26/06 - 20 minutes

Step 4.   Put the j-channels in place.   Make sure they are outside the tabs on each end, or at least put them there when you put the skin in place. 

03/26/06 - 15 minutes

Steps 5 & 7.  Cleco the aft top skin and front skin on!  I don't know why this felt so cool.  I skipped Step 6 because I wanted both skins on to let them "cure" while I'm gone on my next biz trip.  The skins are actually not all that easy to get to bend around the frame.  It's not real difficult, but more than I thought it would be.  They will begin to take the shape of the ribs, so I thought, what the hey, just put them both on for now.  Plus, I just wanted to see what it was going to look like. 

03/26/06 - 2 hours   Need more clecos!

Step 6.  Went back to tackle Step 6.  Took off the front skin and proceeded to line up the center lines of the F-1047 j-channels with their respective holes in the rear skin.  I then secured these and drilled out the holes, using a #40. 

Caution:  Keep your fingers clear of the drill bit coming through.  If not, admire the perfect #40 in your thumb.  Nice.  You do have bandages and other first aid handy, don't you?

04/06/06 - 1.5 hours

Step 8.  Now do the same for the front skin.  If you're doing this solo, you'll have to play around with different techniques to hold the j-channel in place so that the marked center line is correctly positioned.  Now that I'm sitting and thinking about what would have worked better than what I did, use tape!  Maybe duct tape.  My problem was I could get it to center, but couldn't drill and hold it in place at the same time.  Pieces of duct tape would have done the trick.  Arrrrgh! 

04/07/06 - 1.5 hours  

Step 9.  Finish these two top skins by drilling out the rest of the holes as specified in the plans.  Do not forget to leave the holes alone that mate up with the F-1006 and those furthest towards the front. 

04/08/06 - 1 hour