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Hints for crawling inside the tailcone

PaulvS

Well Known Member
Does anyone have any hints for how you went about crawling into the tailcone during construction? I'm at that stage now for my -6A build where the tailcone second top skin needs to be fitted. It's too far to reach inside for drilling and riveting.

I'm thinking that maybe some plywood or particle board cutouts to fit inside and over the belly skin sections would provide enough support and protection to be able to kneel inside.

Unfortunately the construction manual doesn't offer any suggestions! The canoe is supported on stands at the recommended height.

Pics attached of the setup as it stands.

TIA :eek:
 

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Paul,

You are on the right track. Use 3/8 to 1/2 inch plywood cut to fit over the ribs, along with some styrofoam blocks underneath to support the load.

Mine were made in two pieces. One for the back half of the fuse and one for the front. Unfortunately, I don't have any build photos showing them....but I'm sure you get the idea.

Just remember to make it comfortable. You or your rivet bucking partner are going to be spending some time in there. :)

Have fun.
 
Go to Goodwill and go to the pillow section. They have odd ball pillows that usually sell for $1 each. I bought about $20 worth and just lined the entire tail cone of our RV-7 when we were running wires for a panel upgrade. Once I finished with them, I donated them back!
 
Paul,

You are on the right track. Use 3/8 to 1/2 inch plywood cut to fit over the ribs, along with some styrofoam blocks underneath to support the load.

Go to Goodwill and go to the pillow section. They have odd ball pillows that usually sell for $1 each. I bought about $20 worth and just lined the entire tail cone of our RV-7 when we were running wires for a panel upgrade. Once I finished with them, I donated them back!

I did both. Plywood boards and then lots of $1 pillows from goodwill. I still have the pillows as they come in handy now for the condition inspection.
 
On my 7 I was able to do about 2/3 of that skin from outside the airplane. I started on the top of that skin and worked my way down both sides with my bucking bar hand up under the lower edge. Similar process to how you have to do the lower wing skins.

For the rest, I just laid a couple of folded up furniture blankets in the tailcone for my shoulders to rest on, with my butt in the baggage compartment and my feet fwd. I was able to easily reach all the way back to that bulkhead over my head and bucked while my wife shot them from the outside.

The picture below isn't the greatest, but it shows the furthest I had to get into the tailcone.
 

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Pillows and blankets from Goodwill are the best topped with wood planks. At the time I used garbage bags of packing peanuts under the planks….
 
after you do your best pillow and plywood job add a layer of cardboard. you can slide 10 times easier.i made a few hundred trips into a 12's last fall.
 
Make sure to take ALL the tools you may need with you so that you don't have to crawl out and in again. Grrr. It helps to have a partner nearby that can hand you the tool (esp. socket) that you need. If working alone take your cell phone with you. You may need help extracting yourself.
 
Tail cone

I used leftover wood from the crates. 1x6s from tail all the way as far as they would reach. Leftover plywood on top slick side up. Pillow for my head. Slick surface made it easy to slide in. Remember some ear protection. It's really loud in there.
 
I use old bed pillows topped with cut OSB. Don’t forget to support the tail end if it’s up on wheels. You do not want to get way back there and have it tip back and damage the tail end of the empennage.
 
Old bean bag with 1/2 removed and placed in a king pillow case. Contours over the bulkheads and gives great support. Very comfortable.
 
I used some 1" foam insulation that I cut to the basic shape. That helps to spread the load on the skin. I used a few pieces to space the platform to basically to the top of the ribs. Then on top of that I used some of the plywood to make the top pieces. Then to make it more comfortable I used some HF moving blankets.
 

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More tips

I’ll agree that pillows and plywood help. If your hangar/garage is temp controlled, consider wearing only a tee shirt, as baggier clothing can snag on bulkheads.

In addition to that, make sure you stock up on one of my favorite tools…. Swear words!

Riveting the aft top skin was the first task my now wife helped me with, and she mentioned that “this airplane sure swears a lot” as I was buried in the tail cone and she could only see it wiggling around as I struggled inside.
 
Thanks for the tips

Thanks everyone for the tips... and nobody said anything about being a contortionist!

Here's how it turned out, using some cut up particle board and a few assorted chair cushions. It's got a bit of a "homey" feel. Definitely going to need to make sure that all the right tools are at hand.

Happy building
Paul.
 

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Anybody ever think of "going vertical" My shop has 16' clearance to bottom of trusses and 22' between the trusses.

I plan on doing tail cone work with the fuselage vertical and a platform on wheels that is height adjustable that will extend into cockpit opening.

FWIW
 
The second you hit that rivet gun, whoever is inside is going to be pelted with every metal shaving and rivet tail thats living in that tailcone :)
 
From the state of Paul's fuselage shown in his pics, my fuselage lived upside down on a couple of custom sawhorses that were tall enough to let me work from a rolling drafting chair or standing up. You can reach A LONG WAY into the tailcone when the fuselage is upside down.

I finished all the cabin and panel work and wiring with the plane upside down.

I may be the only one that has a tire scuff on the shop ceiling from the last time we flipped it upright.

The last few tailcone bits with it upright are well described in earlier posts on this thread.
 
Wow. You guys covered the floorboard/plywood support thing very well.

HOWEVER, here's a couple of tips to make the experience a bit more tolerable:

1) go to the Christmas aisle at Walmart, or your attic, or wherever, and get a string of white LED Christmas lights, preferably not too harshly white, and string them into the tailcone for cool, even lighting. A rope light also works nicely.

What doesn't work nicely? Almost any incandescent or fluorescent light. Yuck.

2) Buy a small fan. Key word... small. A box fan will work, but is always in the way. Put the fan in the cockpit area to blow cool air into the tail cone. Do this or you'll quickly find out what a baked potato feels like, no matter how cool it is in your shop.

YMMV!
 
Wow. You guys covered the floorboard/plywood support thing very well.

HOWEVER, here's a couple of tips to make the experience a bit more tolerable:

1) go to the Christmas aisle at Walmart, or your attic, or wherever, and get a string of white LED Christmas lights, preferably not too harshly white, and string them into the tailcone for cool, even lighting. A rope light also works nicely.

What doesn't work nicely? Almost any incandescent or fluorescent light. Yuck.

2) Buy a small fan. Key word... small. A box fan will work, but is always in the way. Put the fan in the cockpit area to blow cool air into the tail cone. Do this or you'll quickly find out what a baked potato feels like, no matter how cool it is in your shop.

YMMV!

Okay that's terrific advice right there. I'm about to start some work that will require me to get into the tail and it wouldn't have occurred to me in a million years to use christmas lights but that's a dynamite idea!
 
tailcone work

I crawled up inside my 7A once after it was on the mains. !!!***BLAM***!!! Had forgot to support the tail. Had to perform a pretty extensive repair to the rudder bottom cap. Sometimes I can't believe myself.
 
i am always in the hangar alone. i sawhorsed the tail, put a rope thru the rafters to the tail and had someone come over and watch the first time i crawled in. can you imagine if the tail went to the floor, jammed into that cone headfirst with gravity keeping you down?
i also pulled the hose of my fresh air respirator in there nd it was always on if i was in there. besides O2 the cool air felt great.
and surprisingly a cell phone worked great in there.
 
Probably a stupid question (I would assume the answers are in the plans, which I haven't received yet), but is there a reason why blind rivets shouldn't be used?
 
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Rivets

The RV kits are generally designed to use solid flush rivets on the skins (other than RV-12 that Vans has designed to use pulled rivets).
Flush blind/pulled/pop rivets may be permitted in place of solid driven rivets however most builders would probably avoid doing that because of the higher cost and weight and the less desirable appearance of these rivets. I don't think many people enjoy crawling into the tailcone though!
 
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