I was gearing up for a real fight with the side skins today, but somehow everything miraculously fell into position overnight. I'm still scratching my head on that one. It only took a few minutes to get the side skins mated to the tailcone. I have no idea what changed, other than a night's sleep.
With the side skins clecoed on, I moved to the armrests. I had to flute these a bit to straighten them out, then match drilled them to the side skin. When I'm ready to attach these permanently, I'll make a few modifications to beef them up. They are well known for giving way if a big dude puts their weight onto them. I'll put some extra J channel under the inside lip and probably some small aluminum angle brackets where they attach to the bulkheads. That should make them much stiffer.
And just like that, the side skins have to come off again for the next step. The aft portion has to be bent to match the conical shape of the tailcone 706 bulkhead. The front end of the bend is a 90 degree angle that then opens up to a curve at the aft portion. I clamped the skin to the table with some angle, then drilled more angle to the edge to help with the bend.
My first attempt came out just okay. I put it back on the fuselage to check it and am not in love with the fit. I wasn't paying close enough attention and let the angle put a little crease in the front 90 degree portion. The aft curve isn't quite right either, so I need to pull the skin back off and try again. I'll get another night of sleep and see if the magic fairies fix this too.
