Longerons are bent and now it's time to drill!

The past several days I have spent bending the main fuselage longerons. This is no easy task on the RV-6 as there is a nice curve to the side of the fuselage. There is a template on one of the plans that gives you the outline of the side of the aircraft. What I do is cut the template out and tape it down to my benchtop. I make sure I have plenty of room all the way around the benchtop, then I start clamping down the longeron over the top of the first station on the fuselage. I align the outside of the longeron with the outline of the template and keep clamping it down. When I start reaching the areas that have the curve, I start bending the longeron over the top of the benchtop. Now the longeron will want to twist as you bend it. I made a special tool that clamps down on the longeron and I can bend the longeron in the opposite direction of the twisting. Once I get the longeron to curve with the template, I clamp down the area with another C-clamp. I keep doing this until all of the longeron is bent and its laying relatively flat on the benchtop. It should follow the outline of the template without having to force it into place.

Once one longeron is bent, then you have to flip the template over and bend a mirror image of the first longeron.

It took me about 3 hours to just bend both longerons and get the proper twist in the first part to line up with the firewall mounts and for the rest of the longeron to lay flat on the jig. You want the longeron to have all of the proper curves, bend and alignment without having to force it in place.

Today, I have drilled one of the longerons to the firewall and also drilled the top gusset in place as well. I will do the other side tomorrow.