Fuselage

Frames : A frame is made up of plywood corners, Oregon pine sticks and plywood sheets glued together by epoxy resin loaded with cellulose (tree cell).

The firewall: it is a also a frame but its construction differs; not only because of its role but also because this is where the powerplant mounts and the front gear are attached. We start by jig sawing a pretty nice shape:

When the firewall frame is completed, the first skin is glued one one side, then the holes are filled with AIREX (aeronautical foam) and eventually we close the firewall with the second skin.

Putting the structure together: The structure is placed on a construction bench and then glued. Mine is made with boards I took on old pallets (thank you Marc!) that I planed to the same thickness. The boards are screwed on metal corners laying on trestles.
The frames are first blank mounted in order to position wedges holding the main longerons parts when they will actually be glued. The longerons are made of laminated wood (Oregon pine rods). My Oregon pine beam was a bit short in length (about one inch), I could not find a longer one. I cut and glued the rod with a bevel to lengthen it. I needed one at the front (shown on the picture) and one at the rear. The front one is in between 2 other rod, and the rear one is located under a beech wedge (C10); so they are both reinforced.

Gluing the frames and the 45° longerons
Frame and lower 45° longerons		Upper 45° longerons
Rear View	Frong View	Seen from the firewall	Right Side
Global view	Global view the the False spars.	Detail of the 45° longerons being glued.

Planing the frames and the 45° longerons: frames and 45° longerons should now be planed to provide the skins an optimal gluing surface.

Before			After
Framework ready for its skins
Global view		Rear view		Seen from the firewall.

Skins gluing: Once the the framework is completed and the corners planed, it time to go about gluing the skins.

Fred's trick to remove the stapples.		Another trick pretty much like Fred's one
45% bevels

lower and side skins

Top skins: We can now flip the "boat" right-side-up...

Manufacture of the top formers:The formers are made of a bow glued on a plywood sheet. The bow for C6 is glulam when the other ones are plywood. For C6 the plywood sheet is not glued until C6 is glued on the fuselage, this makes its positionnning much easier.
WARNING: To bend the parts hold them in shape from outside the wedges, it makes you life easier and the risk of breakage is way lower; do not do like shown below, it worked but I had to go very smoothly. Well sometime your brain cells are out of order !!!

C6 (cannopy former) lamination	C6, C7, C8 et C9 bows	C7, C8 et C9 formers

Top formers gluing: C6 requires lots of precision; it is the cannopy former. Stick to the dimensions on the plan and wedge firmly. The "string" is used to flex the bow so it perfectly fits in place. A set of wedges are used to maintain C6 to the correct angle.

Gluing
C9	C6 (canopoy frame)	C6 (Angle)
Done.

Bottom stringers: We seize the opportunity to have an easy access to the bottom of the fuselage to strengthen it by gluing stringers.

Gluing the top skins: staples and straps are used to firmly hold the plywood sheets against the frames and longerons. Once the skins are glued, they must be reinforced by adding pine stringers. These stringers must be glued AFTER the bonding of the skin to maintain a smooth shape, if they were glued before they would create bumps and ugly edges.
We do not yet glue the skins between C9 and C10: this is the location of the vertical stabilizer, and will work in this area.
Finally we put a gusset on each side on C6 and the main longerons.

Reinforcing the skin for the canopy: We have to make 3 glulam. The first one in made in place by gluing rods against the skin from one longeron to the other. The 2 others have to be bentin 2 directions and therefore cannot be made in on shot. These 2 glulam are made larger that the final dimension, once in place they will be put to shape (this gives the second bend direction). This time, I put the parts on the right side of the wedges: way easier! When the glulams are glued on the skin we close the triangles they make with a gussets.

Floor and rudder bearings: The floor beams are made with pine rods and a plywood sheet glued on one side reinforce the assembly. 3 beech wedges are glued at the location of the bearing screws. Eventually the floor itself is glued on the top of the assembly.

Assembly of the vertical stablizor and the stabilator:
- Vertical stabilizer: Its leading edge is glued between two rods on C9. At the rear, the 2 rods that extend the spar are fixed on the 45° bottom skins. The rear assembly is reinforced by a "false frame" made of pine rods and plywood.
- The stablilator: it is temporarily positioned on C10 using clamps and a wedge (gives the correct spacing). The beech wedges allow to mount the fittings parallel one each other because the sides of the fuselage are not. This positioning makes it possible to check the beech wedges parallelism and then counter-drill them together with the fuselage. We take the opportunity to trace the shape of the fitting on the beech wedge which will then be shaped and glued.

Rounding off the "chines" (45° sides): First glue large ofextruded polystyrene on the 45° sides of the fuselage with straps. Then cut roughly with a handsaw, then with a rasp and finish with a strip of sandpaper.
Since the plane is up side down, this is a good oppourtunity to put a layer of fiber glass, putty,primer and paint.