A long rivet set on the gun was a good option to set the bulkhead/rib rivets.

The holes in the ribs which incorporate the seat belt lug brackets proved difficult to insert rivets … a slight misalignment caused by the sandwiching of the lugs I guess.

A gentle final drill on a few of these holes solved the issue.

LP4-3’s are used on the bottom hole on the side of the seat belt lug brackets where the flange was bent, due to access issues. I managed to get my pneumatic pop rivet gun onto these to make the job easy.

The Routing Angles in the centre ribs made it harder to access the manufactured heads, but with a bit of care it was OK.

Once again we clamped the structure vertically to set the skin rivets.

I needed a step ladder to reach the top holes!

I masked off the holes which are not riveted at this stage.

There are a couple of holes with a confusing instruction about riveting.

I think what this really says is “if you are NOT fitting a step don’t rivet these holes at this stage”??

Since I am, we riveted them … I just couldn’t think why we shouldn’t at this stage. We’ll see!

We followed the manual’s advice and riveted from the bottom upwards, ie riveting holes horizontally and gradually moving upwards.

Once all the skin rivets were set, the F-01430 Baggage Floor Stiffener is easily attached with a couple of LP4-3’s each side.

Then the F-01423A-L Outbd Baggage Rib is clecoed to the F-01405D-L Bulkhead Side Channel and to the F-01458-L Side Frame. The skin rivets along these rib lower flanges can then be set to finish the job.

So here it is … the Mid Fuselage Lower Structure and section 26 finally completed. I’m feeling very pleased that this bit is done!

It’s taken me a couple of months to get to this stage in the forward fuselage build.