Section 21 Complete Build Time: 734 hrs

Section 21 took a bit of time to complete. There are many parts to this section and the seat ribs were fairly complex if you wanted to get a complete picture of how the assemblies go together when complete. Because I prime - and because all the dimpling, drilling and nut plate locations are done prior to priming it was necessary to understand the final assemblies prior to actually assembling them. All in all it came out nice. I'm happy with it and it looks like I'm getting closer to finishing. A new milestone - the box of 10000 rivets is no more - I'm down to a cup of rivets from that box. There are still a couple thousand in the second box and hundreds elsewhere. I remember looking at this box and wondering when I would ever get through it. This section seemed to be the most complicated so far. I was definitely the longest. I broke it into two sections because there were so many parts to deburr and prime that it was hard to keep track of everything. I'm already eyeing section 22 which is much shorter.

Bottom skin going on. I wanted to take a picture of this before I flipped it over and as soon as it was right side up I remembered. Oh well - I think there's a section that has it upside down again. If not - let's hope it's the last time it sees the sun!

Here's a view of the bottom of the fuselage. Looks good.

Box of 10,000 LP 4-3 rivets - took two years to burn through these little guys.

Finally the bottom of the box!

Mid fuselage right side up working on the step pans and steps.

I had to stand it on the side so I could reach the #8 screws and nuts for the system blocks - what a PIA to do by yourself.

90 degree steep turns in an RV 12! There are quite a few holes that don't have snap bushings. I looked ahead and couldn't see where those would be put in but I did manage to convince myself that anywhere they may be needed can be accessed.

The finished product of section 21. Took some time. Lot's of inspections since there are areas that will never be seen again. I was tempted to sit in it and make airplane noises but I think that will have to wait until I have the control sticks in it.

Section 21 Build Time: 718 hours

Making progress on section 21. I have about 1 more day of parts to assemble before it's complete. Van's claims that the average build is 800 hours and I'm not far from that. I don't see it taking more than 1100 or so as I'm starting to run out of parts. This is the part where there's a lot of detail to work with and the building goes slowly. I now have a hanger but I won't move the project out of the house until it's too big. It's just too convenient to walk out to the shop and work. I'll keep the Cessna there for now. Several hangers came up at once and I expect to have to move the project around April so I went for it. It takes about a year or so to get through the list.

Last bit of parts for section 21.

Bottom skin ready to go.

The rest of the parts for section 21.

Finally ran into the blue plastic problem after nearly 2 years.  This piece had blue ink for the markings and all the other parts had red ink so clearly it's from a different production run. I'm hoping I don't run into to much of this although there's not a lot of parts left at this point.

Building up the 1203 bulkhead.

Forward spar receptacle coming together. The actual spar receptacle had clear plastic on it. I knew this and thought I had peeled it off. I caught it while priming it so I had to stop, etch, alodine and paint it again.

The 1203 bulkhead assembly.

The 1203 looking all beefy.

Them's flyin parts. The powder coated tube is where the sticks will attach. This is the business end of flying the airplane. Getting excited to see some of this in the plane.

A long weekend of priming and assembly. Got to the point where next step if to flip it over and skin it.