The work in the baggage area continued with cleco’ing and drilling the parts that will frame out the baggage door opening. This includes the stiffner for the angled portion of the opening and the latch area as well. The usual cleco and drill process commenced once it was all ready.
I then moved onto figuring out what I wanted to do about the step bolt area. The stock plans calls for a small hole in the baggage floor pan as well as the exterior of the plane on the bottom. The idea is that if the bolt needs to be tightened or the step removed, the holes can be enlarged and then plugged. I’ve been debating whether I wanted to add an inspection panel in the area as some other builders have done. The wrinkle is that once the side panel is put into place, it basically sits over the top of the bolt head. So even with an access panel, the side panel will have to be drilled out to accomodate a bolt removal.
I thought about going back to the original plan approach, but what I didn’t like is there is no way to inspect or even just tighten the bolt without making some big holes in the skin. So I went ahead with the inspection panel as while I can’t easily remove the hole bolt, I can at least reach in and tighten the bolt, inspect it as well as replace the washer and nut if need be. If the step has to be removed, then the side panel will come off.
Adding the inspection panel isn’t that tough as I am using the inspection panel Van’s makes for the Stall Warning area in the wing (which I didn’t use anyway). So I had previously picked up a second one since I thought I would use it in this area anyway. I found the best position for the panel area, cut it out, smoothed it down and finished deburring the rest of the pan. At this point, I have only gotten the left cover cut. The right has a similar issue, but it’s side panel is a different shape, but the same general problem (it covers the bolt as well).
myrv10factory 